


It's All Fun and Games Until Someone is Hurt

by SpiritedAura



Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Hypnotism, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-08-13 15:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20176534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritedAura/pseuds/SpiritedAura
Summary: Yu and Yosuke are terribly bored in their college dorm in the city. Yu decides he wants to try something he saw on TV. Nothing like some light-hearted hypnotism antics to beat the summer heat. Yu is not experienced in hypnotism and Yosuke is skeptical.





	1. Boredom Leads to Misunderstandings

Boredom comes and goes. Especially on a long summer break. There are many ways to cope with boredom as a college student. Exercise, learn something new, sleep the day away, or hang out with friends and loved ones. 

In a small apartment flat, Yu and Yosuke were experiencing this dull boredom. They had no plans and it was too hot outside to go into the city. There was a long silence and one person couldn’t take it anymore.

“Bro, it’s hot and I’m bored. Entertain me please,” Yosuke whined as he stood near the couch.

“Entertain you?” Yu asked, his expression remaining calm. “I would love to. Anything you want to do?”

“I’m fine with anything.”

“Anything? Well I did watch this TV show once. It showed a hypnotist performing. I wonder if I can pull it off.”

Yosuke stood there with a dumbfounded expression. He couldn’t believe his ears. His Partner, Yu Narukami, wanted to try something ridiculous. Yosuke mentally smacked himself for saying that he was fine with anything.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Hypnosis? Like that would work,” Yosuke huffed before sitting down on the couch.

Yu chuckled and pulled out a 50 yen coin and some string from his pocket. He threaded the string through the hole of the yen and then tied it. Now he had a makeshift pendulum. Yu plopped down beside Yosuke and gently waved the coin and string back and forth.

“Geeze, you’re awfully prepared. How long have you been waiting for a moment like this? A coin on a string? That has to be one of the oldest cliches in the book, Yu.”

“It may be old fashioned but don’t let it fool you.”

Yosuke scoffed in annoyance. Yu was being mysterious again and not in a way that ever bodes well. That’s when Yosuke got an idea to counter his Partner’s little game. Deep down he was smirking but he managed to keep an annoyed expression on his face as he glared at Yu.

“I’ll play along with his game,” Yosuke thought. “Pretend I got hypnotized then do one or two of his requests. Then I’ll suddenly tackle him and tell it to his face that this is dumb and it doesn’t work.”

“Don’t give me that look, Yosuke. Your face might get stuck like that. Here just relax and look at the pretty coin.”

“Bro, I’m telling you this won’t work. It’s all staged on that TV program.”

“Then why are you so fussy over it?”

“I’m not being fussy! O-okay maybe a little. Dammit, just get the show on the road before I change my mind.”

“Let me change it for you then.”

Yosuke internally screamed as Yu countered him. He knew his Partner was toying with him. Yu knew which buttons to push to get these kinds of reactions out of him. 

“Alright, alright just start already,” Yosuke said, getting a tad impatient.

Yu began waving the coin again right in front of Yosuke’s face. Back and forth the coin went in a rhythmic pattern. Yosuke still was being a skeptic to this whole thing.

“Follow the coin with your eyes,” Yu softly said. “Soon you’ll feel tired. Don’t worry, you’re in good hands, Partner. Now breathe in and out. Focus on those breaths for me. No need to be tense, relax those shoulders, please.”

“Tired, huh?” Yosuke asked as he followed the coin with his eyes. He didn’t want to admit that he was already tired. Nonetheless he continued to follow the coin and listened to Yu ramble like the hypnotist they both saw on TV the other day.

“When you fall asleep you’ll be able to hear my voice,” Yu continued. “Go to your happy place, Yosuke. Go there and relax.”

Yosuke couldn’t believe it but he was actually starting to relax. His shoulders felt less heavy and his eyes were fluttering as he tried to fight back against his sleepiness. When Yu mentioned a happy place, Yosuke thought that he was already at it. Sharing a college dorm together with his Partner was his happy place right now. 

"You jerk, I'm happy right here," He looked up at Yu’s face and smiled softly before falling asleep.

Yu lightly chuckled and got a close look at Yosuke’s sleeping face before putting away the coin. He wanted to reach out and ruffle his Partner’s hair but he decided against it for he didn’t want to accidentally undo the hypnosis. Yu continued on with the session.

"Good, you're asleep. Nod if you can still hear me."

Yosuke slowly nodded after the words reached him.

"Listen to me closely. Your command word will be _ribbit_. Whenever I say that word you will do as I say. The word _love_ will set you free from the hypnosis. Nod if you understand."

He nodded again after a moment of silence.

"When I snap my fingers you'll awaken but you'll be in my care."

Yu snapped his fingers and Yosuke's eyes fluttered open.

"_Ribbit._ You will now act like a frog minding his own business," Yu commanded.

Yosuke made a croaking sound and sat up with his arms and legs positioned like how a frog would sit. It didn't look comfortable to Yu. Yosuke blinked and looked around the room. Now and then he'd make sounds from his throat reminiscent of frog croaks.

"This actually worked!" Yu said in excitement. Even he was just as skeptical as Yosuke about the powers of hypnosis. "Yosuke, I would like to play around with you a bit more but I think it might be best to bring you out of hypnosis now. I see that it works so I could experiment with you another time. Yosuke, can you hear me? _Ribbit._ Nod if you can hear me."

Yosuke seemed a bit distracted by his surroundings while Yu was talking. Upon hearing the command word he nodded and focused his attention on Yu. 

"Time to set you free, Partner. I--"

Yu lost his train of thought mid sentence. A large house fly had made its way into the dorm and was buzzing around their heads. Yu wondered how long the fly had been there. He shook his head and swatted the fly and it flew closer to Yosuke. Yu then witnessed something he never expected to ever see. Yosuke croaked as the fly got close and he stuck out his tongue as frogs do, snatching the fly out of the air, and pulled it into his mouth.

"Ah, no don't eat that!" Yu panicked and couldn't remember the command word. He grabbed Yosuke's shoulders and stuck a couple fingers into his Partner's mouth. He wanted to grab the fly before Yosuke could swallow the nasty insect. Then he remembered the word to release Yosuke from his hypnosis. "I _love_ you, Partner! Now wake up!"

Yosuke blinked a few times, his eyebrows raised. Suddenly it dawned on him that he was sitting on the couch uncomfortably. Next came a bitter and a salty taste in his mouth. Last was what was right in front of him. His Partner was awfully close to his face.

"Bro, why are you in my face like that! Knock it off!" Yosuke exclaimed while Yu's fingers were still digging for the fly. "Why is your hand in my mouth!? That's gross!"

Yu fell back and pulled his hand away, the mushed up fly was in his saliva coated fingers. Yosuke shuddered at the sight and his face contorted into anger.

"Yu, this isn't funny! Were you trying to get me to eat that fly?! You realized hypnosis wasn't real and tried to shove a fly in my mouth while I was sleeping?! How could you do this to me?!"

"Yosuke, wait, this is a misunderstanding!" 

"I don't want to hear your excuses right now! Ugh, the fly was bitter and crunchy! I think I have parts of it in my teeth and on my tongue!"

"Yosuke, calm down so we can talk."

"No way. I'm so done with you and all this crap right now. I need a break!"

Before Yu could say anymore, Yosuke stood up, glared at Yu, and stormed off. Yosuke moved his headphones from around his neck to on his head. He started to play some music of his MP3 player. Something loud to drown out Yu's voice.

Yu slowly got up from the couch. He trudged into the kitchen to wash his hands. He watched the fly swirl down the drain. Yu heard a door slam shut. He knew Yosuke went into the bedroom to calm down. Yu wanted to go talk to him but he ultimately decided to leave him be. This wasn't the first fight and it certainly won't be the last. Yu trusted Yosuke enough to let time and distance heal.

An hour passed and Yosuke still hasn't come out of the bedroom. Yu thought that was suspicious and opened the door, or tried to. It was locked from the inside. Yu pulled out his copy of the bedroom key and inserted it into the lock. Yu was determined to not ignore the problem anymore, even if Yosuke wanted to shut him out. One click of the lock and Yu was able to go into the room. 

Yu's eyes widened in disbelief as he saw no sign of Yosuke. One peek into the master bathroom and Yu concluded that Yosuke was missing. Yu frantically looked around, calling his Partner's name. He tore the sheets off the bed and even looked under it. He pulled open every drawer and rummaged through the closet. 

"Yosuke, where are you hiding? Answer me!"

In his frantic search he stepped on something that made a slight crunching sound. When Yu looked down he saw Yosuke's TV World glasses. Luckily they were sturdy so they didn't break under Yu's foot. He sighed in relief at how well made the glasses were. Yu tried to push out thoughts about a possible argument over broken glasses.

"Why were these on the floor and not by the TV where my glasses are?" 

Yu looked at the the top of their dresser. On it was some books and random school supplies. The biggest thing was a flat screen TV. Yu and Yosuke like to cuddle up and watch TV before going to bed. Yu's heart ached as he thought about that. He had to find Yosuke no matter what.

"Did you go into the TV? Were you so angry with me to go into the TV alone?"

Yu pocketed Yosuke's glasses before grabbing his own black pair. He put them on and grabbed his katana off the sword stand. He noticed Yosuke's kunai weren't in the normal spot and were missing too. This solidified Yu's theory that Yosuke went into the TV but somehow forgot his orange glasses in anger.

Back then they used the Junes TV all the time because it consistently brought them to the same place. But Yosuke and Yu were far from Inaba and back in the city. They only had two TVs in the whole flat. Yu knew from the locked room that Yosuke could've only gone through this TV.

Yu held onto his katana tightly with one hand and the other was clutching his chest over his aching heart. He steeled himself and jumped into the TV to find his Partner.


	2. Entertain Me Please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu is stuck in a grey cobblestone cave searching for Yosuke. The dreadful thoughts of lonliness and unresolved lovers quarrels fills his mind.

The TV World was different since the Investigation Team cleared away the fog. It had become beautiful. But the scenery surrounding Yu right now was bland and grey. Everything was like a damp cobblestone cave.

Yu's footsteps echoed on the cobblestone as he pressed on with his search for Yosuke. Finding his Partner was no different than any rescue mission from the past. The formula was the same. Go into the TV, locate the small world created by whoever was thrown in, and go rescue them.

"If this mission is practically the same then why did it feel different?" Yu thought as he clutched his chest over his heart.

He swallowed and let out a shaky sigh. He didn't want to admit that these feelings were due to bitter loneliness. The dreary scenery of endless grey stone didn't help. 

It was a straight path, no twists and turns. It was eerie how peaceful it was in a claustrophobic cave. Minutes felt like hours with nothing going on. Yu's increasing worry didn't help matters.

He wondered what he should say to Yosuke when he catches up to him. Since he was pissed off from earlier an apology should work. But Yu felt that he needed more than just words. 

"Yosuke? Where are you?"

He called out and his own voice echoed back. No response could be heard. Yu stopped for a moment to rest his feet. He almost felt hopeless. He knew he had to press on. He wanted to make things right. When he looked up he noticed there was a different shape up ahead. It was some opening. Yu quickly sprinted forward and hoped that this is what he needed to see.

Yu's eyes widened as soon as he stepped foot into the clearing. The cobblestone was still heavily present. From what Yu could see the room was a hollowed out cylinder. There seemed to be no ceiling. The circular wall just disappeared into nothingness. The room was wide enough to hold about five people. There was a dim blue light that provided some relief from the inky darkness.

Yu took a moment to get his bearings. But soon his eyes stopped on a huddled figure at the very back.

"Yosuke! There you are!"

Yu sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him towards his beloved Partner. 

"Come on, let's go home!"

Yu skidded to a halt and dropped to his knees so he was eye level with Yosuke. It was then that Yu noticed something shocking.

Yosuke had a twisted grin on his face. His eyes stared ahead and twitched. He let out these odd giggles that you could only hear if you were close to him.

Yu scooted back and rested his hand on his katana. For a moment he thought Yosuke's Shadow had appeared. But on closer inspection of Yosuke's face one could tell that it wasn't a Shadow. There were no inhuman yellow eyes. The twisted grin Yosuke wore was twisted but it didn't look like he was excited or cheery. It was a pained twisted smile that was unnaturally forced.

Moving on from the face, Yu started to get a better look at the rest of his Partner's disheveled appearance. His hair was more unkempt than usual. His summer clothes were stained a bit from dirt, most likely from the surrounding area.

Lastly, Yu got a look at Yosuke's legs and arms. His legs were in front of him, knees pointed up, feet brought close to his butt. Yosuke's forearms were angled upward and his hands and fingers were twitching. He was clutching his headphones which covered his ears.

Without warning he grimaced and gasped as he fell over onto his side. His breaths were ragged and he started to scratch at the headphones and even tugged at the audio jack. Moments later his body went limp and his breaths were normalizing. He let out a chuckle and sat up, looking right into Yu's worried eyes. That pained, forced expression was back.

"So, you managed to find me all the way down here? Way to go."

Yu noted that the voice coming from Yosuke was calm and not raspy and pained. It was jarring to hear such a change. But the question made Yu raise his voice. It sounded just like Yosuke. Like his carefree and cheery voice was coming through. But the expression didn't match.

"Of course I found you, Yosuke!" Yu retorted. "You disappeared suddenly. I had no idea where you went! We're both lucky you left a clue before you went into the TV World!"

Yu held out Yosuke's orange glasses and continued speaking.

"These were on the floor in front of the TV. I know you're not that careless to toss them there."

"What are those, glasses?" Yosuke said raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"What? Why are you asking that? Did you hit your head?" Yu asked, voice filled with equal amounts of confusion. "Are you the real Yosuke?"

"Hahaha! That's a foolish thing to ask me. Of course I'm him. Here I'll prove it. There's no use pretending and hiding anymore."

Yosuke made a pained noise and looked into Yu's eyes. 

"H-help me... please help me, Yu!" He choked out his plea for help. 

Yu dove at Yosuke and clung to his shirt to pull him away from the wall and the floor. Yu needed to get his Partner out even if it meant he had to drag him.

"Y-Yu! Please help, it hurts! It hurts so much!"

Yosuke's panicked breathing made it hard to speak but Yu was right by him so he was able to hear every pained word. Yu stopped dragging Yosuke and sat him up so he can try to help.

"How do I help you!?" Yu asked, unable to remain calm.

"Headphones! Loud noises! Ack--"

Yosuke went limp again before returning to a more composed look, except for his forced expression. Yu shook Yosuke's shoulders and the response was a calm laugh.

"What did you do to him!?" Yu reflexively asked in a panic.

"No need for charades anymore. I think you have an idea what might be going on. So let's hear it."

"I thought you were Yosuke's Shadow at first. But you clearly aren't," Yu calmly said. "You may talk like Yosuke but it seems you don't know much about him. You didn't know what these glasses are."

"Looks like someone does their homework. I can't say I do the same. It's true I don't know who this is. I never truly know the people I get my hands on down here."

"Answer my question. What did you do to Yosuke?!"

"Fine by me. As I said I don't need to keep up the charade. I have the power of hypnosis. Your little partner is under it thanks to that accessory on his ears."

"His headphones? You can hypnotize him through those?!"

"It's really easy when I have a medium like this. Enough talk, it's time for some entertainment. What should I have him do?"

"Let him go!"

"Nah this is too much fun. Oh I know I can make him do an excessive workout and then temporarily release him from my control just to see him writhe in pain."

"Don't you dare do that to him!"

"The fun has only begun and you are helpless against my powers of suggestion. Now my puppet, let's begin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have a name for the Being that's inducing hypnosis on poor Yosuke. If anyone has suggestions I'm all ears. Stay tuned for more action.


	3. An Other Side to the Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu's desperation to save Yosuke continues. The Being who induced painful hypnosis on Yosuke has started to show their true colors by provoking Yu. Now take a look as we see Yosuke's point of view and how he ended up inside the TV.

Yu glared at Yosuke who was standing there, mocking him. Yu had to keep telling himself that Yosuke has no control of his actions whatsoever. That didn’t make things better in his mind.

“I’ll set you free, Partner!” Yu declared.

“Set me free? How do you think you’ll remove my hypnosis? You’re a mere mortal,” the Being scoffed, still using Yosuke as their puppet.

“Are you some kind of God or Goddess?”

“Perhaps I said too much. Look, I’m not going to stand here and answer all your questions. That’s no fun.”

“What do I have to do to set him free?”

“Like I would give you the answers. You can’t take the easy way out. Look, I’ll take care of him as long as he entertains me.”

Yu was getting impatient and more worried at those chilling words. He stood there, hesitating on his next plan of action. Yu thought about initiating a fight against Yosuke. They’ve gotten into a few scuffles before. He also knew that whomever was controlling his Partner wouldn’t hesitate to do something drastic in return. The Being could make Yosuke hurt either one of them. Yu decided to ask a different question.

“How did Yosuke get into the TV World?”

“He went through the TV of course just like you did.”

Yu glared once again, gritting his teeth. This made Yosuke laugh for a moment before calming down just enough to talk.

“You really want to know? I can dig up his memories and project them into this room for you if that is what you desire.”

“Is there a trick behind this?” Yu asked.

“You mortals always think this way, huh? I won’t alter what you’re about to see. This is how this boy escaped your world to join me.”

Yosuke shut his eyes and sat down. The painful looking grin was gone. There was a long moment of silence. Yosuke looked rather peaceful where he was. It looked like he had fallen asleep. The peaceful moment didn’t last long though. On the wall behind him there was an image projected on the wall like one would see on a movie theater screen. The images were  
clear and sound could be heard. Yu was witnessing Yosuke’s memories of what happened after Yosuke stormed off earlier that day.

~~~

"I'm so pissed at him right now! Ugh!" Yosuke grumbled as he slammed the bedroom door behind him. “I need to get this fly taste out of my mouth.”

Yosuke turned around and looked at the bedroom door. He hesitated to lock the door from the inside. Deep down he knew Yu was worried but Yosuke could care less about that right now. With a huff he locked the door.

“Yu could use the spare key if he really wanted to…”

Yosuke shook his head and sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his MP3 player. His eyes darted while his fingers moved through his playlists. He decided to shuffle his whole music library. 

“Dammit, why did my music land on a sad song on the first shuffle? Ugh this sucks…”

He shuffled his songs one more time. This time a hip-hop song started to play and Yosuke shrugged and let it play. To drown out the everyday noises he turned up the volume in his headphones. He just wanted to be in his own musical world right now.

Yosuke walked into the master bathroom and began to thoroughly floss and brush his teeth. He wanted every last bit of fly out of his mouth. Just remembering it made him shudder. He swished and gargled with mouthwash as an extra precaution. 

“Much better,” he said as he chucked his toothbrush into the trash. “I don’t need that anymore.”

After the much needed freshening up, Yosuke walked to the bed and sat down. He thought about heading out of the room to see Yu but decided against it. Yosuke wouldn’t know the first thing to say without making it awkward.

“I’ll worry about that later. For now I’ll just see what’s going on in my messages.”

He reached into his pocket and found out that his phone wasn’t there. He got off the bed and started to search the room.

“Don’t tell me I left it out in the living room. If so I’ll just sneak by Yu, grab my phone, and retreat. If he spots me I’ll just glare at him and walk away.”

Yosuke walked towards the door when suddenly his music shut off. This made him stop to check his MP3 player. He started to press buttons but the screen was frozen.

“Did this run out of batteries? No, the display is still on. Wait this isn’t the song I was just listening to...”

His train of thought was abruptly halted when a sharp sound played right in his ears. Yosuke gasped and doubled over, clutching the headphones, trying to pull them off. But for some reason he couldn’t. He started to panic and stumbled around the room. His elbow bumped against the dresser and knocked something off. Yosuke didn’t get a chance to see that his TV World glasses were now on the floor.

“Wh-what’s going on?! Yu, help me please! Yu!”

His words came out raspy as if something was making it so he couldn’t speak properly. He desperately scratched at the headphones but he couldn’t find the strength to pry them off his head. Yosuke felt his body getting heavier that it brought him down to the ground. He managed to turn his head and look into a full length mirror. That’s when he noticed that he was smiling. It wasn’t an ordinary smile. Yosuke fought against the urge to grin but it just made it more forced and unnatural looking.

A few minutes passed before Yosuke felt his body go limp. The twisted smile remained as he stood up. The stiff movements weren’t present anymore. Yosuke walked towards where he and Yu kept their weapons. Yosuke picked up his kunai and tucked them in his sleeves for safe keeping. He then walked towards the flat screen TV and entered it.

~~~

Yu stood there speechless at what he just saw. He tore his eyes away from the projection and looked at a sleeping Yosuke.

“If I hadn’t waited around I could’ve prevented this whole thing from happening. I failed you, Partner…”

Yosuke mumbled in his sleep before waking up. At first he seemed normal but he gasped in pain, hands quickly moving to grasp at his headphones. Yosuke didn’t fully wake because the twisted grin came right back and the Being was still controlling him.

Yu dropped to his hands and knees and clenched his fists. He was angry at himself for putting Yosuke in this much danger.

“If only I hadn’t tried hypnosis on you! Then you would’ve been fine!” Yu shouted as tears welled up in his eyes. “If only I could’ve come up with some other form of entertainment! Instead I made you act like a frog and you couldn’t resist eating that damn fly!”

“What, you’re going to give up?” Yosuke asked as his hands calmly fell to his sides. “Thank you for giving me someone to toy with. But it’s no fun playing with him alone. I’ll make both of you entertain me.”

“Shut up! Not another word out of you!” Yu shouted as he lifted his head. “I don’t want to play this game!”

His mind backpedaled for a moment and he remembered that he said word. Then he remembered the command words. This gave Yu an idea.

“I’ll fight hypnosis with hypnosis!” Yu said as he pointed at Yosuke.

“Oh? Well you’re welcome to give it a shot.”

“_Ribbit!_ The real Yosuke, can you hear me? Nod if you can hear me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Yu be able to outsmart the Being through hypnosis of his own? Will Yosuke forever be a mere plaything? Will the two boys make it out of this safely? Stay tuned~


	4. Fun, Games, and Heartache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ribbit! Yu fights hypnosis with hypnosis. Then swords and kunai will fly. Yu isn't about to back down anytime soon. The Being of hypnosis is cooking up another scheme.

“_Ribbit_! The real Yosuke, can you hear me? Nod if you can hear me!” 

Yu shifted his weight to get to a kneeling position as he shouted. He hoped he could get through to his Partner who was essentially kidnapped by some Being who loves to toy around with others for their amusement.

Yosuke’s face became a blank expression upon hearing the command word that caused them so much grief. He looked over at Yu and then nodded.

“Ah, thank goodness! Yosuke, you’re being controlled right now. Something is using your headphones to mess with your head. _Ribbit_ I want you to take those headphones off and throw them so they can’t be used against you anymore!”

Yosuke’s fingers twitched upon hearing the command word. He slowly moved his hands to his head and began to lift the headphones off.

“That’s it, Partner. Keep that up and you’ll be free.”

Yu’s hope was crushed in mere minutes after he said that. Yosuke laughed, twisted smile and all. He repositioned the headphones and walked close to Yu. He crouched down so they were eye level with each other.

“Hahaha! You thought that you could best me at my own game? You’re an amateur hypnotist if you think you could outsmart me with simple commands. I overwritten your commands with my own. I just played along for a moment but you had to try to remove the medium I was using. I can’t let you do that.”

Yosuke patted Yu hard on the back which caused Yu to flinch. Yu had to think quick before anything else could happen.

“You tricked me! I thought you said you wouldn’t do that!” Yu angrily retorted.

“I did say that I wouldn’t trick you but I never promised that.”

Yosuke ruffled Yu’s hair and stood up, taking a few steps back. With a flick of his arms and wrists he revealed his kunai that were hidden in his sleeves. Yu mentally slapped himself for not noticing the kunai beneath the thin fabric of Yosuke’s summer shirt. That horrible grin Yosuke had most of this time was too distracting.

“What, you’re going to fight?!” Yu asked as he scrambled to his feet and grabbed the hilt of his katana.

“I nearly forgot about these! Kunai are a perfect form of entertainment.” Yosuke said as he waved one around carelessly.

“Put those away! If you do that I’ll drop my katana and we can talk!”

“Talking is cheap. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, right? So let’s have some fun and worry about the one hurting later.”

Yosuke ran towards Yu, kunai in hand. There was something weird about his movements. They weren’t normal. He was swinging his kunai around without much thought behind each swing. The Being who controlled Yosuke didn’t care about fluid attack patterns.

Yu ducked and weaved as he jumped back away from the swinging kunai. When he got a bit of distance he pulled up his sword to block more of the wild attacks. He didn’t want to fight back but his life was on the line so Yu had no choice. He crouched down, sword still in a blocking position, and he swung his leg out in a sweeping motion at Yosuke’s feet. He hooked his foot and managed to pull Yosuke’s leg from under him.

“Gotcha!” Yu shouted as he saw Yosuke wobble. 

Yosuke fell forward, kunai still in hand, and into Yu. One of the kunai struck Yu’s shoulder and the blade dug in. Yu gasped in pain and tried to throw Yosuke off of him so he could remove the kunai. Yu wished he was wearing his old Yasogami High uniform. It provided more protection in situations like this. Yu was also wearing summer clothes and the thin fabric easily allowed the kunai to become embedded in his shoulder. The pain caused Yu to toss his katana aside.

Yosuke refused to get off Yu, pinning him down with his body weight. Yosuke threateningly held the other kunai over Yu’s neck. Yu fought back by trying to shove Yosuke away.

“You’re strong to hold me back. Too bad that open wound in your shoulder might weaken you if we keep this up,” Yosuke sneered.

“I can fight through the pain. I have to fight for my Partner.”

“You want to see your precious Partner? Here, I’ll let you have him for five minutes.”

Before relinquishing their control, the Being made Yosuke reach for the kunai in Yu’s shoulder and ripped it out before tossing it aside. Yu screamed out in pain and he couldn’t apply pressure to the wound because Yosuke had him pinned down good. Moments later, Yosuke slumped forward. The other kunai that he held in the air clattered to the floor right beside Yu’s neck.

Yosuke’s eyes fluttered open and he couldn’t believe his eyes. Yu was underneath him and was in obvious pain. It took a moment for Yosuke to see the wound in Yu’s shoulder.

“Partner, what happened?! Your shoulder is bleeding!”

“Y-Yosuke, you’re alright,” Yu said with a small smile.

“D-don’t worry about me! I’m more worried about you! You’re bleeding! What caused this?!”

Yu turned his head and looked at the bloodied kunai. Yosuke followed his Partner’s gaze and he got his answer.

“My kunai?! I-I did this?! No! NO! I refuse to believe this!”

Yosuke shifted himself off Yu and started to apply pressure to the wound using his hands. He wished he had some healing items on him but they were all left at home. Then he remembered he could use his Persona for some healing.

“I’ll fix you up, Partner. Time to summon Jiraya!”

Yosuke shouted for his Persona but nothing happened. No glowing light, no Magician tarot card, and no Jiraya.

“Go, Persona! Jiraya! Let’s go, Jiraya!”

Yosuke frantically screamed for his Persona to come but it was no use. Yosuke’s eyes started to well up with tears as he fell to the floor in despair.

“Why can’t I summon my Persona!? I’m so useless right now as my Partner bleeds out! Even worse it was my weapons that did this! When did I stab my Partner!?”

Yu couldn’t sit back and watch anymore. Maybe he could try summoning a Persona of his own.

“Persona!” Yu called out, reaching his hand up to get ready to crush the tarot card that comes down whenever he’s summoning. Once again nothing happened.

“You can’t do it either?” Yosuke asked through the tears.

“This is the TV World so I don’t know why…” Yu said as he winced in pain.

“Let’s go, Partner. We can get you patched up when we find the exit.”

Yu barely had time to nod as Yosuke let out a pained yelp. The Being quickly gained his hold over Yosuke.

“Five minutes are up. Though I snuck in an extra minute in case you were keeping track. Aren’t I nice?” 

Yu knew it was pointless to yell at the Being to let Yosuke go. Instead he had a bigger question.

“Why can’t we use our Personas? This is the TV World, right?”

“This is the TV World but you’re in my pocket dimension where I can stop Personas from entering. You’ll have to come up with something better than that,” Yosuke explained. “Look, I don’t want you to get blood all over my nice pocket dimension so here.”

Yosuke snapped his fingers and a light surrounded Yu. The light closed up the wound and made Yu’s shoulder as good as new. Yu couldn’t believe the Being actually helped him. He didn’t think to give his thanks. He’d do that only if Yosuke was permanently free.

Yu looked at the fallen weapons scattered around them and kicked them away. He hoped they wouldn’t be used anymore. It was too dangerous.

“No more knives and swords? Well no matter, I have something else. Time to rearrange this dull scenery.”

With another snap of Yosuke’s fingers, the room started to shake. Yu shielded his head with his arms in anticipation of things falling. But nothing fell. Instead things began to rise upwards. A spiral stairway was forming near them. The shaking stopped as soon as the stairway reached about 40 feet in the air.

“What do you plan to do with those stairs!?” Yu exclaimed.

“Just a little game to get things interesting again. Come on and catch me!”

Yosuke laughed as he started to sprint up the stairs. Yu quickly followed now that there was no more pain in his shoulder. It didn’t take long for them to reach the top. There was a platform at the top where they both could stand on but it didn’t provide too much space for walking around. Yosuke stood dangerously close to the edge.

“This isn’t funny anymore!” Yu shouted. “Anything but that! Don’t make him fall!”

“You’re letting your mind wander too much, Partner. Didn’t you want the game to end?”

“Not like this! Now come here and let’s go back down! We’ll play something else!”

“But I like this game.” Yosuke chuckled before wincing.

“Did you just stop your control again?” Yu asked, finally realizing a pattern to when the Being takes control and gives it away.

Yosuke blinked and his eyes widened in fear. He just had to look down and see that there was a terrifying fall.

“How did I end up here?! I don’t remember going somewhere up high!” 

“Yosuke, come here away from the edge!”

“Right the edge, wait you’re up here too, Partner?” 

“We can talk about that as soon as we get down,” Yu said as he held out a hand.

Yosuke nodded and grasped Yu’s hand. The moment was ruined when the stairs started to shake beneath their feet.

“Let’s run!” They said in unison.

Yosuke moved in front of Yu and started to drag him along as they sprinted down the shaky cobblestone stairs. Yu kept eyeing the back and top of Yosuke’s head. He should’ve thought of this a long time ago during the other times they were close by. Yu didn’t want to miss this opportunity. He grabbed onto the headphones and Yosuke winced. Yu knew if he didn’t hurry the Being was going to hypnotize Yosuke again. The wincing was the first sign of it happening.

“This will finally set you free, Partner!”

Yu yanked off the headphones and tossed them as far as he could down the stairs. Yosuke let out another yelp of pain and slumped forward, tugging Yu down with him. Luckily they were on the last foot of stairway so the fall wasn’t too painful. Yosuke hit the floor face down and Yu landed on top of him. Yu quickly got off and rolled Yosuke onto his back.

“W-we did it! We did it, Yosuke!” Yu exclaimed with a smile of joy.

Yosuke didn’t respond and Yu’s smile disappeared. Yu patted Yosuke hoping that he would wake up. He knew that the fall they took wasn’t far and he hoped Yosuke was just dazed. But something was completely off about that theory. Yosuke’s eyes were dull and he looked like he had the wind knocked out of him. Yu quickly pressed two fingers against Yosuke’s throat. There was no pulse.

A voice that he hadn’t heard before filled the room confirmed the thing Yu was dreading the most. 

“You weren’t supposed to do that. Especially when I’m in the beginning of hypnosis. This is why you’re an amateur and you shouldn’t mess with this kind of thing,” the Being said, their voice cold and menacing.

“What happened to Yosuke? Tell me!” Yu shouted as he wrapped his arms around Yosuke and pulled him close. Yosuke was very limp in Yu’s arms, dull eyes facing Yu’s own tear filled eyes.

The Being spoke, “You pulled the headphones off at the worst of times. You caused that boy brain death. I was issuing commands to him to put him under hypnosis the moment you pulled the headphones. That overloaded his brain and shut it down hard.”

“He can’t be dead! Not Yosuke! My precious Partner! He means a lot to me! Oh wait, I have a Revival Bead!”

Yu reached into his pocket and produced the Revival Bead. He held it over Yosuke and the bead emitted a strong glow. The light faded moments later. Unfortunately it didn’t work and Yosuke still remained motionless.

“I can’t use healing or revival items either?!” Yu asked in disbelief and despair. “Y-Yosuke, please come back to me! There’s so much I have to tell you that I never got a chance to!”

Yu lowered Yosuke down and held him tightly against himself. Yu buried his face into Yosuke’s shirt and cried loudly into it. He couldn’t believe that by trying to save him that he ended up killing him.

What felt like an eternity passed but it was only fifteen minutes. The Being’s voice had come back.

“Do you want another chance? I’m not satisfied with how this game is ended. I have called upon some other Being to bring him back to life. But there is a price. You have one hour after he wakes up to escape from this world. Otherwise I get to keep him forever as my plaything. At least he’ll be alive when that happens.”

Yu trembled and wiped his tear stained face on Yosuke’s shirt. He was desperate at this point. If he couldn’t revive Yosuke himself then he would have to go to the next best thing. He would hate himself if he said no to this offer.

“If it’s another challenge you want then you’ll get it,” Yu said through small sobs. “Now please revive him.”

There was a blinding light and Yu could feel himself being torn away from Yosuke and cast aside. Yu blindly felt around for his Partner but couldn’t find him at all. When the light faded, Yu blinked and tried to adjust his vision. There in front of him was Yosuke, sitting up, eyes full of life, and his heart beating in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please take the complimentary tissues as you continue with me down this road.


	5. Escape the Countdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke is alive but not well. His mind was messed with so much that he has gaps in his memory. It is up to Yu to convince Yosuke to escape with him before one hour elapses. If not then Yosuke would be doomed to live his newfound life as a plaything.

A deal to bring back the dead was made out of desperation. But with deals like this there was a catch. Things always aren’t that easy. One hour to make it out of the pocket dimension in exchange for one’s life. If they fail then the one who once lost his life will stay alive but be stuck in the pocket dimension. It was a fate worse than death.

Yu rolled onto his hands and knees and crawled towards Yosuke who was sitting there in a daze. Yu wrapped his arms around Yosuke tightly and pulled him close.

“You’re alive. You’re really alive…” Yu said trying to calm down his sobbing.

“Huh, Yu? What do you mean by that? Of course I’m alive. Though I don’t exactly feel too good. My head feels all fuzzy and my everything hurts…”

“Your everything?” Yu said with a small chuckle.

“That’s the best I can do right now, dammit. Don’t go teasing me now when I’m not feeling my best,” Yosuke huffed.

“Now that sounds like you, Partner.”

“Yeah, so what are we doing on the floor and why do you have a death grip on me? Hey, are you crying?”

“I’ll explain later,” Yu said as he gently let Yosuke go. “I just remembered that we have to get out of here.”

“Get out of here? Oh right, we’re in the TV world? I think you mentioned that? My memories are all hazy right now.”

Yu nodded and stood up. He helped Yosuke to his feet before walking over to retrieve their weapons. Yu put his katana away on his person and Yosuke picked up his kunai. He stood there for a moment and looked at the one blood stained kunai and then remembered seeing Yu’s wounded shoulder. Yosuke gasped and tried to look for the wound but all he saw was where Yu’s shirt was cut open, no wound in sight.

“Don’t worry about this,” Yu said as he covered up the torn fabric with his hand. “I’m better now.”

“I thought I couldn’t heal you! How did it happen?” Yosuke asked as he tucked the kunai back in his sleeves.

“Like I said, I’ll explain later. We have to get moving or we’ll run out of time.”

“Run out of time? You’re making no sense.”

Yu sighed and decided that he owed Yosuke some more information. He thought it would help give Yosuke the motivation to get moving instead of asking a billion questions. Yu picked up Yosuke’s headphones and brushed the dirt off.

“Here, these belong to you,” Yu said as he walked over and put the headphones around Yosuke’s neck.

“Oh, thank you. It felt weird not having these. Hold on, these things were malfunctioning and making weird noises.”

“Just don’t wear them on your head.”

“I won’t, I don’t want weird sounds that get louder playing in my ears anymore. Hold on don’t go changing the subject. You owe me an explanation for why we’re running out of time.”

Yu grabbed Yosuke’s arm and started to run out of the cylindrical room. Yosuke wanted to protest because he was confused as all heck but he trusted his Partner’s instincts.

“I can explain why we’re running out of time as we run away,” Yu said. “I made this deal to the Being that created this pocket dimension. We have to find the exit in one hour. Or you’ll be trapped here forever, Yosuke.”

“Trapped forever?! What the hell happened that you had to make a deal like that?!”

“I don’t want to say what happened just yet!”

“Fine, dammit! You’re telling me when we get out! If you don’t then I’ll beg until you tell me!”

Both of them glared at each other as they continued to run. The cobblestone cave remained the way it had been since both of them entered the pocket dimension. There were no twists, just a straightforward path.

“How are we doing on time?” Yu asked.

“How the hell should I know? I wasn’t keeping track!” Yosuke retorted. “I feel like we’ve been sprinting for a long time now!”

“Well we can’t stop until we reach the end. I’m sure the exit is up ahead!”

Without warning there was a flash of light in front of them that made them squint. When their eyes adjusted they saw a timer counting down. There were five minutes left on the timer and it was counting down. The timer moved ahead of them as they ran but remained within viewing distance.

“Well that’s convenient but five minutes aren’t enough!” Yosuke whined. “I’m getting tired, Yu!”

“You have to stay strong, Yosuke! We can rest when we escape!”

“Yeah, yeah and if we don’t get out I’m trapped here, I get it!”

“I don’t think you do. Yes, you’ll be trapped here forever but you’ll also become a puppet to the Being that governs this place!”

“WHAT?! No! Nuh-uh! Yosuke Hanamura will not be some puppet toy for anyone! I’m my own person and I want to keep it that way!”

Yu nodded and realized this was the motivation Yosuke needed to push through the pain of everything that had happened to him. It was motivation for Yu as well because he wouldn’t want that kind of fate to befall anyone.

Yosuke looked at the timer and gasped and Yu snapped his own attention to it.

“One minute left!” They shouted in unison.

As soon as they shouted the exit revealed itself. It wasn’t too far away but there was still a gap between them and the exit.

“Is that an Exit TV?” Yosuke asked.

“It has to be! We don’t have much time!”

Yu and Yosuke looked at each other with determination and grinned. They picked up the pace and adrenaline kicked in. Thirty seconds and counting down on the clock. They closed the gap and were about to jump through the exit.

Yosuke’s luck, or lack thereof, caused him to trip on an uneven stone. He fell forward and Yu lost his grip on him. Yu was right in front of the exit.

“Yosuke, hurry, get up!”

“Ow, I think I banged up my knee,” Yosuke said as he winced.

Yu did his best to pull Yosuke off the ground and support him. Yosuke hobbled forward, leaning on Yu for support. Both of them put their hands through the TV just as the clock hit zero. Yu tumbled forward and out of the TV. He landed on his stomach on the floor. Yu blinked and recognized the bedroom carpet. He was relieved that it wasn’t grey cobblestone. He wouldn’t have to see anymore of it.

“Yosuke we did it!” Yu said as he pushed himself up off the floor. “I’m so happy right--”

Yu’s eyes widened as he couldn’t finish his sentence. Yosuke was nowhere to be seen. Yu frantically looked up at the TV. It showed four blinking zeros. It was the countdown timer from the pocket dimension. It continued to mock him as Yu got up and tried to reach into the TV. But the clock wouldn’t let him push his hand through.

“Yosuke! No, no, no, this isn’t right! You were right there with me! Your hand was right by mine! Yosuke you can’t stay in that place! Who knows what that cruel Being will do to you! You can’t be trapped for eternity!”

Yu banged on the TV in desperation as tears freely fell. He remembered he had Yosuke’s glasses and pulled them out of his pocket. He let out a whine as he held the glasses close to his chest. Yu collapsed to the floor and held onto the orange glasses.

The timer on the TV disappeared as it served no purpose anymore. There was mostly silence in the room except for Yu’s quiet sobbing. He’d lost his Partner to that other world. Yu felt like he lost a part of himself. His bond with Yosuke had been a part of him for a very long time. Yu mumbled to himself pathetically.

“Yosuke, why did you have to leave me? I miss you so much. I never got to apologize properly to you for the hypnosis stunt and the fly. I continued to get mad at you when you were confused. I never got a chance to say that I watched you die and come back to life. I’m so stupid. Now you’re gone and I want to say that I _love_ you. I love you so much, Yosuke. I will always love you no matter what.”

Before Yu could continue pitying himself, there was a sound coming from above and behind him. Yu didn’t bother to look up. Then he felt something slam into him. Yu grunted and tried to shove whatever fell but stopped when the thing the weight belonged to made a noise.

“A-ah that hurt! I got thrown out of the TV…”

Yu couldn’t believe his ears and eyes. Laying on him was his beloved Partner. Yu tried to turn to face Yosuke but with they way they were positioned it wasn’t easy. Yu craned his neck to look behind him the best he could.

“Yosuke!” Yu shouted as he used his strength to push him off. “You’re really here!”

Yosuke rolled off Yu and frowned at being shoved away. Yu quickly fixed that by grabbing Yosuke and pulling him up into a tight embrace.

“Whoa, Partner, what’s with all the shoving and grabbing?”

“How could you be this clueless? I thought you were trapped forever!”

“I am not clueless! Well I’m kind of clueless because there are gaps in my memory since this afternoon.”

Yu gripped onto Yosuke even tighter and cried into Yosuke’s shoulder. Yosuke tried to hold in his own tears but it was no use. Yosuke wrapped his arms around Yu and let out tears of his own. Both of them were a crying mess right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter done and this was a doozy. More to come so please be patient.


	6. Fixing the Memory Gaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both of them are safe in the real world but they need to have a talk. Yosuke recounts his moments in the TV World after he was left behind. Yu finally confesses something he had a hard time saying to Yosuke's face.

Yosuke and Yu cried and cried on each other’s shoulders until they couldn’t cry no more. Yu eventually let his death grip go and scooted back a bit to give Yosuke a bit of space. Yosuke rubbed at his face to wipe away the remainder of snot and tears and Yu followed suit. They looked at each other and smiled briefly before they got into a more serious mood.

“Alright, we need to talk,” Yosuke said. “Where should we start?”

“Yes we need to find out the whole truth,” Yu said with a nod. “Let’s discuss how you got back to our world first.”

“I went through the TV like we always do when we exit.”

“Yosuke, don’t hide things from me,” Yu glared. “You didn’t escape with me. How did you get out when the timer ended?”

“Okay, okay! Geeze, just give me a moment,” Yosuke sighed and closed his eyes as he thought about his escape. “Here’s what happened.”

~~~

Yosuke winced as he fell onto the cobblestone. He could feel pain flaring up in his right knee. He knew he scraped it. He cursed his luck before looking up at Yu who was urging him to stand. Yosuke grabbed onto Yu to use as a support to stand up.

Gritting his teeth through the pain Yosuke held out his free arm at the same time his Partner did and pushed it through the Exit TV. Yu went through first and Yosuke was about to follow but the countdown hit zero. Yosuke’s knee flared up, causing him to let go of Yu.

“Partner, wait! Damn this pain! I really did fall on my knee hard and I think it is bleeding.”

Yosuke suddenly felt a force pulling him back and threw him against the wall. The impact and they way Yosuke smacked into the wall made his headphones flip up from behind his neck to on his ears. The ear pieces were askew and one of Yosuke’s ears were covered.

“O-ow! What the hell was that for?! Who threw me at the wall!?”

Yosuke didn’t have to wait long for a response. He felt something moving in his pocket where he keeps his MP3 player. The headphone cord was moving on its own and the jack found its way into the audio port on the player. Yosuke remembered that the headphones were used to induce hypnosis and quickly moved his hands up to throw his headphones but the weird sounds started to play. Yosuke could hear it loud and clear in one ear but the other ear was free.

“S-stop it! I won’t let you do this to me again!” Yosuke demanded as he struggled to pry the headphones off.

The voice belonging to Being that governs this realm spoke. Their voice echoed around the room.

“Don’t resist me. You failed to escape within the hour so you’re stuck with me forever.”

“I don’t want to be here! I want to be with my Partner!”

“I’ll be your new Partner. I’ll make it so you won’t have to argue with anyone. I’ll make you happy. Here let me help you smile.”

Yosuke gasped as the sounds in his ear got louder. He could feel his lips move and twitch into a smile. He resisted the best he could but it wasn’t enough. The Being forced Yosuke to walk towards the Exit TV which turned into a mirror. Normally Yosuke would black out and the Being would have complete control but this time was different. Since he could only hear the sounds in one ear it created a weird effect. Yosuke was still Being moved against his will but he was completely aware of what was happening.

“See your reflection? Isn’t that a nice smile you have?” the Being asked.

“I don’t want to smile like this! This smile isn’t real! It’s twisted, painful, and horrific!”

“If you fix those headphones I can ease that pain.”

“Like I’d be tricked into doing something like that! Now let me go!”

Yosuke struggled against the hypnosis and threw himself at the mirror. He didn’t want to see how deranged he looked anymore. He bounced off the mirror and noticed it wasn’t as sturdy as he thought. He threw himself at the mirror again and again. One angry kick later broke the mirror. Yosuke felt and watched as his face relax as the mirror crumbled away. The Exit TV reappeared.

“You had to take a violent approach to the situation? You could’ve hurt yourself,” The Being said.

“I don’t need to hear this from you! I’ll leave the scolding to my Partner!” Yosuke retorted. “Yu, I want to see you again...”

“I can’t allow that. You’re my puppet for all eternity.”

“I’m not your puppet! I’m my own person, dammit!”

“What are you going to do if you did escape here?”

“I’m going to see my Partner of course! I have things I want to talk to him about! After all you were the one who took me out of my world before I could discuss something important with him!”

“You were going to talk to him before I induced you under my hypnosis?”

“Of course! I couldn’t stay mad at him forever! We may fight but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t stop loving him!”

The Being released Yosuke from his partial hypnosis. Yosuke fell to the floor, panting from struggling against it. He pushed his headphones back behind his head and disconnected the cord so the sounds would stop.

“Get out of my realm now,” the voice said.

“What?” Yosuke asked in confusion as he sat up.

“I said get out. You’re clearly a handful that I don’t need here.”

“What’s with the sudden change of heart?” Yosuke asked with a smirk.

There was another strong force that picked Yosuke up. He panicked as he was flung at the Exit TV and went through it. He tumbled out into the real world.

~~~

“There, that’s what happened,” Yosuke said as he stretched his arms and legs.

“So you fought against whomever created the pocket dimension and he kicked you out because you were being a pain in the ass?” Yu asked with a deadpan expression.

“What?! Dude, I didn’t say that I was a pain in the ass! You say the most random things at the weirdest times. I swear you’re doing it on purpose.”

This made Yu chuckle and Yosuke couldn’t help but let out one as well. Despite all their fights with each other, they still care deeply about each other.

“Alright that’s one mystery down,” Yu said. “You had a good fight and won your freedom.”

“Of course I did,” Yosuke said proudly. “Alright I want you to explain to me why you wouldn’t tell me what happened in that big room.”  
“I found you huddled in the corner and you looked like you were in pain. You had this freaky grin on your face.”

“Ah yeah, my face still hurts from all that. I honestly didn’t know what I was doing half the time. Occasionally I’ll feel pain and I remember seeing you in between blackouts. It’s all such a blur.”

“Blackouts? Was that from when the Being took over your body completely?”

“That seems like the best answer to this whole thing. Using my headphones to transmit sounds to my ears was the first step. It made my body ache and heavy. I would grin evilly and then nothingness. Everything goes dark as if I fell asleep.”

“I see. You did some crazy things under hypnosis. Like attacking me with your kunai.”

“I remember seeing blood! I saw it on my kunai and on your shoulder! We tried to summon our Personas and failed! I’m so sorry, Yu!”

“Hey, calm down, Yosuke. My shoulder is better. Plus you weren’t yourself.”

Yosuke took a moment to calm himself down. Yu scooted closer to him so they were side by side and leaned on him. Yosuke leaned in as well. This saved Yosuke from having a panic attack.

“Thank you, Partner,” Yosuke said quietly.

“Anytime. Now please don’t freak out too much…”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Yosuke said with a sigh. “You had to say it like that, huh?”

“I neglected to tell you this because I was worried you’d stall and waste precious time from our one hour limit.”

“Right, you kept dodging my questions and kept dragging me along.”

“I did that because I wanted us out of there.”

“So what happened that made you do that?”

“Y-you died, Yosuke…” Yu choked on the words but managed to get them out.

“I died?! When? How am I alive now? What the hell?!” Yosuke asked as he scooted away from Yu in shock.

“It was during the thing on the stairway. I thought you were going to fall off the top to your death.”

Yosuke shuddered as he remembered he regained control of his own body at the top of the stairs. The sickening feeling of being up that high with no rails to keep them safe. Yosuke thought hard and remembered something.

“We both ran down the stairs together. I never fell from the top. So how did I die?”

“I-I caused your death…”

Yosuke shook his head in disbelief. He knew from the way Yu sounded that he wasn’t joking around. He believed in his Partner but he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact Yu killed him.

“It was an accident,” Yu said as he spoke in a low voice. “I thought I was going to stop the Being from controlling you. I saw the perfect opportunity and grabbed your headphones off your head. We both stumbled down the last bit of stairs.”

Yu was waiting for Yosuke to get upset at him but to his surprise Yosuke continued the conversation.

“I think I remember feeling my headphones come off. I was so relieved that I could get away from those sounds. They were like whispers in my ear telling me to go to my happy place. Then came the screeching sounds that caused me to blackout. So how did I die?”

“The Being said it was trying to take control of you just as I pulled your headphones off. When I looked into your eyes they were dull and you stopped breathing. You were brain dead and had no pulse.”

“Dude, that’s freaky! The only thing I remember was running down stairs, a loud noise, my headphones coming up, and lastly a splitting headache. Next thing I knew I was sitting up and trying to focus on my surroundings.”

“That was your death and being revived.”

“I can’t believe I’m alive. I mean there are Persona spells that can revive but we can’t summon our Personas there.”

“Remember the deal I mentioned to you? One hour to escape?”

“Ugh, one hour or I’d be someone’s plaything for eternity. That almost happened! That Being had to mess around with me one more time before casting me out! Not to say that I’m completely mad but I’m still effing pissed off!”

“It’s alright now, Yosuke. I’m here with you now. You’re free from that horrible place.”

“You’re right, I should calm down,” Yosuke said as he stood up. “Well that cleared a lot of confusion up.”

“Are you done talking?”

“Well I’m exhausted. A lot happened. Aren’t you tired too?”

“Of course I am but where are you going?”

“I think I need some time to organize my thoughts by myself. So you can have the bedroom and I’ll take the living room.”

“Yosuke, please stay here with me. I don’t know if being alone for either of us will do any good.”

“Well if you insist then I’ll stay.”

Yosuke sat down on the bed and chucked his headphones to the side. He really didn’t feel like being near them right now after all that had happened. Yu climbed onto the bed as well and laid down, gently tugging Yosuke with him. Yosuke laid back and snuggled up with Yu.

“After we nap we should go out and get ourselves something nice to eat,” Yosuke said grinning a genuine smile. “It’ll be my treat.”

“Sounds good, Partner,” Yu said with a soft smile.

Yosuke kissed Yu’s forehead and Yu reciprocated the gesture. They wrapped their arms around each other and tangled their legs. Soon after they both fell asleep. After everything that happened they deserved a long rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't the end of this tale. There's more comfort to be shared in the next chapter. So please stay tuned~


	7. A Celebration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After freshening up, the boys go out for a celebratory lunch. Yosuke wanted to do something nice as a big thanks to Yu for the bravery he had shown during the rescue. Yu's just happy that they're together again.

The boys had a long rest well into late morning. Their sleep was peaceful and much needed after their last adventure. Fighting for their freedom and their lives really took a toll on them. They would’ve slept later but one person couldn’t stay asleep. Yosuke was the first to open his eyes. He winced as soon as he felt how achy his own body felt. He decided a warm shower would help.

Yosuke looked at Yu and gently kissed him on the nose before disentangling himself from his Partner. Yu ended up gripping onto Yosuke tighter in mid sleep which made him wince again. Yosuke waited for Yu’s grip to loosen before pulling himself away at last. As a substitute, Yosuke placed a pillow in front of Yu and watched him hold onto it.

“I’ll be right back, Partner,” Yosuke quietly muttered with a gentle smile.

He tiptoed around the room and grabbed some clean clothes and a towel before going into the master bathroom. He quietly closed the door and turned the water on in the shower. Since he was trying to be quiet he decided against blasting music. While the water was warming up, Yosuke stripped off his scuffed and slightly torn clothes. He forgot they went straight to bed after their foray into unknown territory.

Yosuke examined himself in the mirror. Starting at his face and head, he saw that he was a bit greasy and his hair was very messy. No wounds and he was very thankful for that. Last thing he wanted was to go into public looking like he got beaten up. He sighed in relief and chuckled a bit. When he saw his own reflected smile he couldn’t help but remember the twisted one. On his own free will Yosuke tried to replicate it. It was harder than he thought. He felt his jaw pop and he winced instead.

“How the hell did I make that face if I can’t do it without hypnosis?”

Yosuke continued on after pushing those thoughts from his head for now. There was some slight bruising here and there, which was a surprise to him. He’d thought there would be more. Then he remembered he was brought back from the dead so he assumed that most of the bruising was healed up from that. The only visible wound and bruise was his right knee. The injury caused by some clumsy footwork while on the run. The scrape had already scabbed over a bit. There was a visible bruise too.

He stopped looking into the mirror after remembering he had the shower running. Yosuke stepped into the water and proceeded to clean himself. The water felt amazing on his sore joints and muscles. He took such a long shower that he used up all the hot water. He hoped Yu had the patience to wait for the hot water tank to fill back up again before taking a shower. Yosuke decided he was clean and rejuvenated enough to turn the water off and step out. He scrubbed his hair with a towel and dried off the rest of his body before getting dressed into identical summer clothes to what he wore the previous day. After cleaning up the bathroom floor, Yosuke stepped back out into the bedroom.

Yu had gotten up at some point and was making the bed and setting out fresh clothes for himself. Yosuke walked over and sheepishly grinned.

“Good morning! I used up the hot water. If you don’t want to be cold I suggest you wait a bit.”

“Morning. That’s fine, I can wait,” Yu said as he started to take off his clothes save for his boxers.

Yosuke couldn’t hide a blush as he watched. Yu had bruising and no visible wounds. Not even a scar on his shoulder from the kunai. Yosuke made a small noise of relief before clearing his throat.

“Is something wrong?” Yu asked as he picked up the fresh clothes.

“Nah, it’s nothing,” Yosuke said dismissively. 

“If you say so. Well I’ll be right back.”

Yu walked into the bathroom, took off his boxers, closed the door, and proceeded to take his shower. The water was lukewarm but it was bearable. It didn’t take long before Yu finished up. The water did end up getting colder much quicker and Yu didn’t want to be cold. He got out, shut the water off, and looked into the mirror as he dried off.

He examined himself and noted nothing out of the ordinary before putting on clean clothes. A set that was similar to what he wore yesterday is what he picked with minor differences. Yu made a mental note that they should go shopping together for some new clothes.

When Yu stepped out with an armful full of dirty clothes, Yosuke was ready to go. Yu tossed the clothes into the laundry basket and grabbed his wallet and another item before following his Partner out of the bedroom.

“Where shall we go, Partner?” Yu asked as he was putting on shoes.  
“I know this place where they serve massive parfaits. I’m really craving sweets right now,” Yosuke replied with a wide grin.

“I could use something sweet too.”

After making sure they had everything they needed, they walked outside. From the college campus there was a bus that took them to a shopping center. All they had to do was walk to the bus stop down the road. As they were walking Yu patted Yosuke on the back causing him to stop.

“What’s up?” Yosuke asked.

“Here, you forgot something,” Yu replied as he held out Yosuke’s headphones and MP3 player.

“Do you think it’s a good idea…?” Yosuke asked a bit hesitantly. “After all that happened…”

“Don’t think of it like that,” Yu said as he placed the headphones around the back of Yosuke’s neck.

“It does feel weird when I’m not wearing them.”

“You look good with them.”

“Don’t I though?” Yosuke said with a laugh as he disconnected the cord from the MP3 player. “I’ll just keep this unplugged and tuck this away.”

Yosuke put his MP3 player in his pants pocket and tucked the end of the audio cord under his shirt. He knew he shouldn’t be worried but he couldn’t after everything that transpired. One look at Yu and Yosuke forgot part of his worries. They proceeded onto the bus stop. They had to run a little because the bus pulled up on time and the boys were a bit behind. They managed to catch up and boarded the bus in the nick of time.

They paid for an all day bus fare before sitting down next to each other. The warm sunlight filtering through the window felt nice. It had been a while since they last saw the sun. Both of them made casual talk the whole ride to the shopping center.

When they disembarked the bus, Yosuke pulled out his phone to locate the parfait place on a map and then pointed down the road they had to go to reach it. They kept to themselves this time as they walked but they enjoyed each other’s company. Yosuke broke the silence as soon as they reached the place.

“Ta-dah! Here we are, Partner!” Yosuke said with a childish grin and a flourish of his arms.

“I haven’t been here before,” Yu said as he looked at the sign.

“Me neither. The parfaits are supposed to be large so I would feel bad coming here alone.”

“We have each other.”

“Come on, you’re getting all sappy. But I get what you mean. Let’s go, Partner. Oh and no paying since this is my treat to the both of us.”

Yu nodded and opened the door, letting Yosuke through first before following behind him. It looked like there was a handful of people. Yosuke pointed to a table in a corner where there weren't too many eyes facing in that direction. Yu nodded and proceeded to secure the table while Yosuke pulled out his wallet and went to order their food.

Yosuke eventually returned to the table and placed a large parfait between Yu and himself. There was yogurt, strawberries, kiwi slices, granola, ice cream cones, ice cream, and blueberries all in one big fancy looking cup.

"I hope half of this is filling for you, Partner," Yosuke said. "I don't think I could eat one of these on my own."

"This is really nice, Yosuke," Yu replied as he picked up a spoon." Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now let's eat, I'm starving here!"

Both of them dipped their spoons into the sweet treat in front of them and started eating. They were so hungry that they were scarfing it down at a fast pace. They made a dent into the parfait before finally slowing down.

"This is the best!" Yosuke cheerfully said as he took another bite. 

As he did so, a bit of ice cream splashed up onto Yosuke's cheek. Yu grabbed a napkin and reached over to wipe it off.

"Oh did I get some on me?" Yosuke asked as he let Yu help him. "You could've just said something."

Yosuke tried to push back his blush but a bit showed in his cheeks. Yu pulled his arm back and smiled. Yosuke averted his eyes and picked up another spoonful of parfait. This time Yosuke accidentally splashed some on his nose. 

"Geeze, what's with me right now?" He mumbled as he reached for a clean napkin.

Before he could grab it, Yu grabbed onto Yosuke's hand and leaned in so their faces were close. 

"Bro, what are you doing?" Yosuke asked a bit nervously. "We're out in public, you know?"

Yu didn't say a word. He closed the gap between them and quickly licked the parfait off Yosuke's nose before letting go of his hand and sat back in his chair. Yosuke sat there, his face beet red, and unable to form any words for what just happened. He fidgeted and wanted to make a scene but he didn’t want to embarrass himself even further.

Yosuke just quietly ate from his side of the parfait to help cool down his blush. Yu looked like he was enjoying himself. Yosuke was having fun too but he wasn’t expecting Yu to just do what he did. Yosuke grabbed a cone with his hands and bit into it, his face feeling less flushed the more he ate. By the time he calmed down, Yosuke had a one bite left before his half of the sweet treat was finished. 

Yu happily watched his Partner eat and kept up with his own pace. When Yu was down to his own last bite he scooped some into the spoon and held it out in front of Yosuke’s mouth. This confused Yosuke but he decided there was no harm in playing along. He mirrored Yu’s actions and now both of them had a spoonful of parfait on spoons that weren’t their own in front of them. At the same time they took a bite off the spoons before leaning back.

“All finished,” Yu said as he clapped his hands together.

“That was a ton of food,” Yosuke chimed in. “I’m stuffed.”

“Thank you for treating today, Yosuke.”

“It’s not a problem, bro.”

“We should head back.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be able to wander around here with a full stomach like this.”

They both got up after a moment and proceeded out the door. The summer heat beat down on them as they made their way back. They both nearly fell asleep on the bus ride back. They would take turns nudging each other awake so they wouldn’t miss their stop near the college dorms. When they arrived, the sluggishly made their way off the bus and trudged up the road to their place.

“Home at last,” Yosuke grumbled as he struggled to open up the door.

“Do you want to take a nap?” Yu asked as he yawned.

“I could use one.”

Yosuke finally got the key the right way and unlocked their apartment. After taking off their shoes and locking the front door, they made their way to the bedroom and collapsed back on the bed.

“Just an hour or two…” Yosuke mumbled.

“To sleep off all this food…” Yu muttered, completing Yosuke’s sentence.

It didn’t take long for them to fall asleep. The celebration while fun was premature. They had forgotten one thing. They hadn’t fully solved the case of Yosuke’s kidnapping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluff, fluff, and more fluffy goodness~ With something ominous at the end.


	8. The Challenge Gauntlet Inside A Dream Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleeping leads to many things. Yu and Yosuke find out that sleep leads them to another dangerous game. The Being is back and has another ultimatum. Yu and Yosuke have to survive a series of challenges and risk it all.

Sleep is a wondrous thing. It can refresh your body and help it heal. Other times sleep can be mysterious with its dreams. However the sweetest of dreams can become terrifying nightmares.

Yu was experiencing such a nightmare right now. He tossed and turned in his sleep. Yosuke was rudely awakened when Yu suddenly punched in his sleep, his fist landing square in Yosuke’s cheek.

“O-ow! What the hell, Partner?!” Yosuke yelped as he sat up, pushed Yu’s fist away, and rubbed his own face. “If you wanted to brawl again you just have to ask politely. Dammit that hurt…”

Yosuke sighed and realized Yu wasn’t waking up despite his protests. Yu was still fidgeting and making pained expressions in his sleep. Yosuke curled up against his Partner and pulled him into a hug.

“It’s okay, I’m here for you, Partner,” Yosuke said as he gently stroked Yu’s back. Eventually he fell back asleep after Yu had stopped moving around so much.

Yosuke woke up a bit later but something was off. There was dirt instead of a futon and a cloudy sky overhead instead of a ceiling. Yosuke scrambled to his feet in shock and looked around.

“Where the hell am I?! Did I sleepwalk or something? Hey, Yu?”

Yosuke’s eyes widened when he noticed Yu wasn’t by his side. When he looked behind him there was a brick wall that had the word ‘EXIT’ graffitied on it. Yosuke tapped on the wall with his hands but nothing happened.

“You have to be kidding me! Oh this is very bad…”

Yosuke paced around for a bit until he heard something in his ears. That’s when he realized he was wearing his headphones. He panicked as he remembered a familiar pattern he thought he never had to deal with ever again. Yosuke tried to remove his headphones but they were stuck on his head. This was a bit different as he usually was able to lift them a bit before the Being hypnotizes him.

“I have full control of my body! So why can’t I take these things off!”

Yosuke yelped in surprise when he heard a voice in his ears. He recognized it right away and fell to his knees in dread. 

“Welcome to my final game, my puppet,” the Being said.

“I’m not your puppet! I thought I got kicked out of your pocket dimension for being a pain in the ass!”

“You are a pain but that doesn’t mean I don’t find you entertaining.”

“Just go away! Get out of my life!”

“I will in due time if you complete my final game. If you make it through my challenges and then you can see me face to face.”

“Oh, it’s on! I’ll get through this and then I’ll give you a piece of my mind!”

“Why do I only want a piece when I can have the whole thing?”

“Arrgh! You know what I mean, dammit!”

“Before you get going I want to tell you what happens if you fail.”

“I already have an idea but go on.”

“You’ll be under my hypnosis for eternity and your friend will be trapped here too.”

“I figured as much. Now about these headphones…”

“I will not hypnotize you unless you fail any one of the challenges or you give up hope. You have my word. But you won’t be able to take those off the whole time you’re here.”

“Ugh! Just tell me where the first challenge is!”

“It’s just down the road in the forest. There you’ll find a clue on a scroll. Actually the scroll is missing. Looks like your so called Partner left you behind and took the only clue to the challenge.”

“H-he wouldn’t leave me behind! I’m sure he’s just going through these challenges to find me!”

“You sound like you have some doubts.”

“S-shut up! Get out of my head so I can focus!”

“As you wish. Two more things, you won’t be able to summon your Persona here. That would be cheating. Lastly there is a twist with your hypnosis but I won’t tell you anymore on that matter. Can you reach me?”

Once the voice was gone, Yosuke looked up at the sky and angrily screamed out his frustrations. Once that was over he stood there panting. He knew it wasn’t wise to let the voice get to him but it was hard not to. He didn’t want to doubt Yu but a small part of him did. Yosuke steeled his resolve to find Yu and talk to him to get his side of what had happened. Yosuke secretly hoped Yu would get stuck on a challenge so that he could catch up.

Just down the road was a house that looked like it was made of metal. There were no windows, just a door. The structure was surrounded by tall wall that was impossible to climb. Yosuke realized he’d have to pass through the house. He remembered something about a scroll but didn’t see one.

“Partner, did you really take the scroll with you? If the Being spoke to you like they did to me then you should’ve known I’m here too…”

With a sigh, Yosuke walked into the building. The metal door slammed shut behind him, causing him to tense up in surprise. It was dark except for some scattered, blue lights flickering.

“What are those lights?” Yosuke asked himself out loud as he walked towards them.

When he got close he quickly found out the hard way. One of the lights flickered and got close to him. Upon contact there was a jolt of electricity that made him yelp and knocked him off his feet. That’s when Yosuke realized that he had come in contact with an electrical cable.

“O-ow that hurt. I need to avoid these lights and get the hell out of this place!”

Yosuke got back onto his feet and cautiously walked around. He put his hands in front of him to make sure he didn’t bump into anything. He found that the cables were easy to avoid as long as he walked in a straight line. Some of the cables were a bit too close for comfort but Yosuke managed to bob and weave out of the way. As he continued to make his way through he saw an area with a higher concentration of the blue lights.

“Is that where I have to go? Man, I’m gonna get zapped, aren’t I?”

He let out a nervous laugh as he approached the cables. There was enough light to illuminate a sign on a door that said ‘EXIT’ and Yosuke was relieved he was almost out. The formidable barrier of cables stood between him and precious freedom. Yosuke had to think of what approach to take. He could muscle his way through but risk painful electrocution unlike the jolt he got earlier.

“If only I could summon Jiraiya. I’d cut down these cables in a flash.”

Yosuke stepped forward and nudged one of the cables, making sure to only touch the insulated part. That’s when he finally got an idea. He proceeded to carefully push the cables and weave his body around. He found this method slow but it was the safest. When he reached the door he opened the door and ran out. Unfortunately one of the cables swung forward and touched his back and jolted him, causing him to tumble out of the door and onto the ground face down.

“Ow…” He whined. “Curse my bad luck…”

He remained there grumbling to himself until he heard footsteps coming towards him. Yosuke picked up his head and saw Yu standing there with a relieved smile.

“Partner, I’m happy you’re here!” Yosuke exclaimed as he got back onto his feet. “You didn’t leave me behind after all!”

“I’m happy that I found you too, Yosuke,” Yu said. “Wait, I left you? I wouldn’t do that to you. The Being spoke to me and said you were lost in this world and that I had to go rescue you. I didn’t think I’d find you shortly after getting past those cables.”

“Oh, speaking about those cables, you left me with no clues on how to get through! Those things hurt, bro!”

“They do sting a little bit. Oh, one of the cables damaged the scroll when I used it to deflect one that was swinging down.”

“You have resistance to electricity so of course you’d say that! Geeze, I’m so happy I didn’t get a jolt to the face. That must’ve been scary, bro.”

“It was scary but I made it through and you did too.”

Yosuke nodded as he calmed down. He knew they had to review what they knew so far. Yu explained that he woke up and was told that Yosuke was further ahead and in danger. Yosuke shook his head and mentioned that he saw Yu fidgeting in the real world and fell back asleep resulting him in coming to the world after Yu. Then Yu mentioned that there were many challenges ahead but no specific number was given. Yosuke then told Yu that they couldn’t use Personas since it was deemed cheating by the Being. Lastly, they discussed what the Being had told Yosuke about his headphones and some mysterious condition involving hypnosis.

“I have a bad feeling that they would go back on their word and hypnotize me at any given moment…” Yosuke said as he shuddered. “If he does that then I don’t know what the next course of action would be.”

“We faced those tricks before,” Yu said. “This shouldn’t be any different.”

“Yu, there’s challenges and some twist we don’t know about. This can be really dangerous.”

“We just have to tackle this like we always do with any given dangerous situation.”

“I know but…”

“Look, don’t worry about it so much.”

Yosuke was about to say something but he suddenly forgot what they were talking about. All he could do was just go along and hope for the best.

“You alright?” Yu asked. “You look like you’re spacing out.”

“H-huh? Oh yeah I’ll be fine,” Yosuke said with a sheepish grin. “So why did you get stuck here? Is there another challenge or something?”

“There’s a door with two buttons near it but I can’t open it without some help. When I press one button nothing happens.”

“So you need me to push the other button at the same time?”

“Exactly. I can’t reach the other button on my own.”

“Let’s do this, Partner.”

Yu nodded as he walked over to the door with the buttons. He stood in front of one and Yosuke stood by the other. Yu started to count down from three. As soon as he said ‘one’ they both pressed their button and the door opened up. On the other side were more trees but there were sounds of a running river. On one tree there was a scroll nailed to it. Yosuke grabbed it and read it out loud. It was in the form of a haiku.

_”A forest ahead_  
Jump over a roaring stream  
Beware of insects” 

“This seems better than that metal house of electric torture,” Yosuke said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “All except for the insects…”

“We can do this, together.”

“There’s your motivational speeches again. You’re right.”

“Shall we get going, Partner?” Yu asked as he held out a hand.

“Of course! We’ll go teach that Being that we’re better than them at their stupid games,” Yosuke said as he clasped his hand with Yu’s.

“Follow me, Yosuke!” 

“Right!”

As soon as Yu started to run, Yosuke followed. That’s when Yosuke felt something off. He had no problem following but there was a strange feeling in his legs. Like some sort of stiffness to them.

Yu started to run through the forest, ducking under branches, jumping over rocks, and sliding down small hills. Yosuke on the other hand wasn’t having an easy time dodging out of the way. He felt some branches smack him in the face because he couldn’t slow down his own pace to dodge them in time. He stumbled over rocks and even took a tumble down the small hill. Each time he felt himself get back onto his feet and back on course.

“Hey, Yu? I think something is wrong!” Yosuke shouted. 

Yu didn’t hear him and skidded to a halt in front of the river. He saw a vine and and took a few steps back before running as fast as he could. Yu jumped, grabbing the vine, and using the momentum to swing across the river. The vine snapped causing Yu to have a rough landing on the riverbank on the opposite side.

Yosuke flailed his arms as he came running towards the river. Yosuke did see Yu swing across but there was no more vine to grab onto.

“I can’t stop my feet! I really don’t want to go for a swim today!” Yosuke exclaimed as he ran right into the river. “A-ah! Help! This current is going to sweep me away!”

Yosuke knows how to swim just fine but the current was powerful. Yu recovered from his little fall and noticed that Yosuke was in danger. Yu grabbed the snapped vine and threw it out to Yosuke to use as a sort of lifeline.

“Grab on, Yosuke!” Yu called out.

Yosuke swam over to the vine with a bit of difficulty but it sure wasn’t as difficult as it was a moment ago. He grabbed on and Yu fished him out of the river. Yosuke pulled himself up and out of the river with a loud sigh of relief.

“Today’s just not my day. In fact these past couple of days have been hell!”

“It hasn’t been easy…”

“Oh, there’s something weird going on with me.”

“You’re already pretty weird.”

“Like you’re one to talk! Come on, listen to me for once, dammit!”

“I’m listening.”

“When I say weird, I mean I feel this weird heaviness at times? Like when I was running after you I wasn’t able to dodge things like I normally do. Then I fell into the river because I couldn’t stop my feet from moving.”

“So that’s why you went swimming.”

“I didn’t want to do that! It’s like I’m doing things against my will!”

Yosuke gasped as he started to form a theory about the weird occurrences. Yu had an idea as well be he allowed Yosuke to talk.

“I think I’m still under some kind of hypnosis,” Yosuke said as he touched his headphones. “Is this the twist the Being warned me about?”

“The Being said they won’t directly hypnotize you but they’re indirectly doing it instead.”

“Right. It’s like I feel everything happening to me but I can’t control what I’m doing. I really don’t know which is worse between the types of hypnosis I’ve been exposed to.”

“Completely unaware or hyper aware until it’s too late. Personally I would rather be aware so I have a chance to stop myself.”

“That’s a fair point, Partner. Anyways, we need to figure out our next course of action. Maybe then we’ll figure out a bit more about my hypnosis state.”

“Right, you stay there and I’ll scout ahead. I don’t want your hypnosis to cause any trouble if I can help it.”

“Wait, I’m coming with you! H-huh!? Why can’t I move my legs!?”

Yu had already ran ahead as soon as Yosuke realized he couldn’t walk. Yosuke struggled to make his legs move but they just stayed put.

“Yu! Get back here! What if you need my help again?!”

As if on cue, Yu did return. His expression was worrisome though.

“Something wrong, Partner? You look a bit spooked…” Yosuke said.

“There’s some bugs up ahead…”

“Bugs? Eww…”

“They’re big too.”

“How big are we talking here?”

“Not too much bigger than your average house fly.”

“Flies?! You just had to say flies. After everything you put me through on that day--”

“Yosuke, I’m sorry about that.”

“H-huh? Well, I'm still mad about that but I guess I can let it slide for now.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

“I’ll hold you to it then.”

“Well then, are you ready to go into the swarm? The challenge did mention insects.”

“I honestly wanted to push that thought out of my mind about insects but here we are. Let’s just get this over with.”

“Alright, I’ll lead as usual.”

“Hold on, I can’t move my legs.”

Yosuke attempted to move and struggled. Yu walked over and pushed on Yosuke’s back to get him to budge but it was no use.

“Come on, move forward a bit!” Yu demanded.

Yosuke suddenly felt his legs get lighter. The pressure Yu was putting against his back made Yosuke topple over and face first into the dirt.

“Dammit all, why me!?” Yosuke whined as he sat up rubbing his nose. “This isn’t funny anymore.”

“That was rather odd.”

“Can we just get going? I don’t know if I can take much more of this nonsense…”

Yu nodded and helped Yosuke up to his feet. After he dusted himself off, they proceeded to walk into the deeper part of the woods and away from the river. Yosuke’s eyes widened with horror as he saw a swarm of flies.

“Whoa! These things are a bit bigger than normal flies!” Yosuke remarked.

“I wish I was joking when I said that,” Yu said.

“So, we have to go through that right?”

“Looks like it, Partner.”

“Okay, here I go!”

Yosuke charged ahead and Yu followed this time. As soon as they entered the swarm, the flies smacked into them. Yosuke lifted the collar of his summer shirt to cover his mouth and nose so he wouldn’t accidentally eat a fly. He never wanted to go through that again. Just the thought made him feel sick to his stomach. Yu did the same with his own shirt as they ran through the cloud of insects.

“I think there’s a cave up ahead!” Yosuke shouted as he pointed at the opening to a cave.

“I see it too! The flies might not follow us inside!” Yu responded.

“I really hope so because these things are annoying!”

They both started to sprint faster, swatting at the swarm as they went. They didn’t bother to admire the cave when they reached it. After ducking into the cave and walking further in was when they could feel a bit more at ease.

“Can we take a short break, please?” Yosuke begged as he shook his own clothes to make sure no flies nestled in there.

“Yes, of course. I need to catch my breath,” Yu replied as he leaned on the cave wall.

“How much torture is this thing going to put us through? These challenges are insane.”

“There’s a light at the end of every tunnel.”

“Dude, are you even listening? Or are you too busy cracking lame tunnel jokes because we just so happen to be in a tunnel.”

“But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, see?” Yu said as he pointed.

“Hmm, fancy that. I was worried for a moment that our next challenge involved rocks and caves. I’m happy that we don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’m relieved as well. It was dark in the middle of the cave and we don’t have much light.”

“Then shall we step out into the light?” Yosuke asked with a grin.

“That would be nice.”

They exited the tunnel and were amazed at the next sight. Everything around them was made of orange rock formations. The sky was cloudy and had orange hues.

“It looks pretty out here,” Yu remarked.

“It looks like a bunch of rocks to me,” Yosuke said with a huff.

“The rocks are your favorite color.”

“I think there’s too much of my favorite color. It needs other colors to balance it out.”

“I never thought I’d hear you say that.”

“Well, anyway, we should go look for a scroll. This has to be a challenge.”

Yu let out a small sigh and walked alongside Yosuke. He thought he could cheer his partner up but it wasn’t working very well. He just wanted to see him genuinely smile again. Meanwhile Yosuke was annoyed and just wanted to make his way to the Being that made his life hell. Soon they came across a pedestal with an orb the size of a bowling ball. There was a scroll hanging below. Yu read the scroll out loud.

_”Transport the large orb_  
Climb the cliff side of orange  
Find the sturdy gate” 

“Hold on, we have to carry that thing up a cliff? It looks heavy,” Yosuke said as he touched the orb. He lifted it and to his surprise it was light. “Oh thank goodness. I think we can do this.”

Yosuke hoisted the orb above his head to demonstrate that the object was in fact light. He started to feel some hope come back. He handed the orb to Yu.

“Why are you giving this to me?” Yu asked.

“I think it’s safer in your hands, Partner,” Yosuke replied. “Knowing my current status I don’t think I should hold onto it. But if you really need me to I can.”

“You have a point. You might drop it.”

“Y-yeah you get what I’m saying,” Yosuke stuttered with a small glare. “Let’s brace ourselves for the climb. Geeze I can barely see the top.”

With a sigh he started walking once again. It was times like these where he wished he could have music playing in his ears as he explored. But his headphones were now a tool and threat that could cause anything to happen. Yosuke shook his head to get some focus back at the task at hand. He saw that the cliff side had wide spots to grab onto. He tested it out and pulled himself off the ground.

“These seem sturdy enough,” Yosuke said as he climbed up a little more before looking down at Yu. “Bro, are you going to be alright carrying the orb with one hand and climbing with the other?”

“I think I’ll manage,” Yu replied. “I’ll just go slower so I don’t drop this or fall.”

“Please don’t fall. I don’t know what happens if we die in this world…”

“I don’t want to think about that either…”

“Then let’s get this done safely and efficiently. Take your time, Partner.”

“Feel free to climb ahead since you’re fast on your own.”

“I might end up doing that. But if you need help just holler.”

“Will do, Partner.”

The climb started off easy. There were many large footholds they both could grab onto. Yu even used the biggest ones to hold the orb in place so he could use both hands to pull himself higher. After moving up a bit he would scoop up the orb and move on. They didn’t talk much because they wanted to put all their focus into the climb. One slip up meant falling and neither of them wanted to experience that.

Yu thought about what he’d do when they reached the Being. He wanted to get answers out of them even if it meant by force. He had a feeling his Partner felt the same.

Meanwhile Yosuke kept thinking back on the previous challenges. He then thought about the instances where he felt his body move on its own. He didn’t have to think much longer because the Being was back in his head. The sudden voice startled Yosuke, and he lost his grip for a moment causing him to slide down. Luckily he grabbed on to a foothold as he fell at the right time. It was just a minor setback. 

“What are you doing in my head!?” Yosuke demanded.

Yu stopped moving and looked up and over. He watched carefully and listened in on Yosuke’s conversation. He couldn’t hear the Being, just Yosuke’s angry protests.

“It’s a nice place,” the Being replied. “I’m surprised it isn’t empty.”

“Well jokes on you! I have a lot going on in my mind and you’re not invited!”

“How mean of you to say when I was going to tell you something for making it this far.”

“I don’t know if I want to hear it!”

“It’s about your condition. The twist in the game.”

“Arrgh! Fine, tell me and then go away!”

“You have involuntary hypnosis.”

“Judging by everything that happened to me earlier I can put two and two together. It just has a fancy and annoying name.”

“Do you like the feeling of being able to move without thinking?”

“Of course not! It’s super dangerous!”

“Well I guess you don’t need my help then.”

“Hell no! Go away!”

“Alright, I’ll see you two when you get here. For now just be careful around your Partner. He may say something and then get you into trouble.”

“He’s already given me trouble for your information! But you are the worst for making it possible!”

“I’ll take my leave.”

Yosuke gritted his teeth and punched the cliff side. He winced and shook his hand before going back to angrily climbing. Yu could piece together what the Being might of said to Yosuke judging by the way Yosuke shouted. Yu felt hurt that he had accidentally caused Yosuke some trouble. He knew Yosuke had it worse but Yu felt some of the misery as well. 

“If we get out of this, and we will, I shall tell you everything that I’m sorry for, Partner,” Yu said to himself.

They continued their climb in silence. Yosuke wanted to forget what the Being had just said to him. The whole involuntary hypnosis has been a scary thing thus far. He nearly started to think of terrible challenges but quickly started thinking about other things. He feared that the Being could read his mind. Eventually his anger subsided.

Yosuke made it to the top of the cliff first. He got onto his stomach and looked over the edge to see how Yu was doing carrying the orb. Yu nearly lost his grip since he was still using one hand to climb but Yosuke quickly reached out to him and grabbed onto his arm.

“I got you, Partner!” Yosuke exclaimed as he gripped onto Yu and started to pull.

“Thanks, Yosuke!” Yu replied as he looked up at Yosuke. Yu used his feet to help push himself up as Yosuke did the hoisting.

When they were safe at the top of the cliff they were exhausted and were taking a break. Yosuke was lying on his stomach with his face in his arms. Yu was still holding onto the orb.

“So we have to get this orb to a gate right?” Yu asked.

“That’s what the scroll says,” Yosuke replied as he rolled onto his back. “It’s times like this I wish we had a navigator.”

“It’s going to be alright, Yosuke. Look, you’re trying your best even with your current state of mind. Now just relax.”

Yosuke felt his body relax instantly but it just didn’t feel right to him. Yu chuckled for a moment as he looked at Yosuke’s unamused face.

“Bro, this is not as relaxing as you think it is,” Yosuke said with a sigh. “Relaxing against your will is just so wrong on many levels.”

“Well if you can’t properly relax then we should get going,” Yu said as he stood up. “Follow me.”

Yosuke was relieved that he was able to stand up. He was able to move everything on his own except his legs. He walked straight over to Yu.

“Before we get going, can you make it so I can move freely? It’s not that I don’t want to follow you, it’s just that I want to make sure my legs work properly in case something happens. Don’t want to be in a similar situation we had back in that forest area...”

“Right, you went for a swim after I crossed that river,” Yu said thinking back.

“It’s your fault for that, you know! My clothes have finally dried off!”

“Move freely, Yosuke.”

“Don’t ignore me when I’m mad!”

“You can move on your own now.”

“Huh? Oh that’s much better.”

Yosuke sheepishly grinned and gave a thumbs up as his anger subsided. His legs didn’t feel as heavy anymore. Yu smiled and started to walk. Yosuke took a moment to make sure he could move freely and then followed his Partner.

The top of the cliff was wide and flat. They were both relieved that they could take a break from climbing. Once in a while Yu would pass the orb to Yosuke so he could stretch his arms.

“Hey, Partner? I think we’re reaching the end of this giant rock,” Yosuke said as he pointed to where the clifftop ends.

“You’re right and I don’t see a pedestal anywhere in sight,” Yu said, coming to a halt at the edge.

“Don’t tell me that we have to climb down…”

Yu looked ahead. From where they were he could see some sort of gate up ahead. There was a road that leads to it that started at the base of the cliff.

“Looks like it,” Yu said as he pointed to the gate and road.

“Ugh, this sucks…” Yosuke grumbled as he followed Yu’s finger with his eyes.

“Do you need a break?”

“Nah, I can keep going. I want to reach the end of this thing so I can give that Being a good scolding for all the crap they put us through.”

“Right, and I’ll be there by your side when you do that.”

“Thanks, bro. Now let’s start climbing down.”

With their goal in mind they began to carefully climb down the cliff. Yosuke passed the orb back to Yu since he was afraid he’d drop it or fall off the cliff side as they made their descent. The footholds were big enough so it wasn’t very challenging but it was still exhausting.

They both focused on the task at hand. Occasionally they’d give each other words of encouragement but that was about it. The climb went smoothly which they were thankful for.

Yosuke was the first to reach the bottom. He was dripping with sweat and took a moment to catch his breath. When Yu was nearing the bottom he tossed the orb to Yosuke, which he caught, that way he could get down a bit quicker.

Once Yu’s feet touched flat ground, both of them high-fived in a momentary celebration. This boost to their morale gave them much needed energy. Going off this energy, they proceeded down the road towards the gate that Yu pointed out earlier.

“I wonder what’s up ahead,” Yosuke pondered out loud.

“There’s a gate,” Yu chimed in.

“What?! I know there’s a gate. I meant what kind of challenge is up ahead. Geeze I don’t get you sometimes despite knowing you for a long time…”

Yu chuckled, happy that he got that kind of reaction out of his Partner. Yosuke looked a bit annoyed but he knew this was one of Yu’s ways to cheer him up and it worked.

The road they were on was a straight one. Up ahead was the gate and a pedestal, the one they’ve been looking for this whole time to complete the challenge. They sprinted ahead cheering at the top of their lungs that they did it. It felt good to cheerfully yell.

When they reached the gate they nodded and looked at the pedestal. There was an indent the size of a bowling ball.

“This must be it,” Yu said, looking at the orb.

“We carried this thing pretty far,” Yosuke said. “I want a break from orange rocks.”

“Same here. I want to see something pretty.”

“Yeah, can’t we have some sun? Or perhaps some beautiful stars?”

“Well let’s open this gate and hope for the best.”

Yu placed the orb in the indent on the pedestal. The iron gate in front of him shook and opened outward. Both of them looked at each other with triumph before turning their attention back to their mission.

Yu walked past the newly opened iron gate. On the other side was a grassy plain with wildflowers. It was beautiful compared to the barren orange cliffs they had to climb up and down. Sunlight was even present in this area to make it seem like daytime.

“All I see is grass and flowers,” Yu said as he walked further.

Suddenly the ground shook and a square cage rose up from the ground right beneath Yu’s feet. The walls surrounded him and then formed the top of the cage. Yu kicked at the bars but the sturdy metal didn’t budge.

“I’m trapped!” Yu exclaimed as he continued to kick at different parts of the cage.

“Hold on, Partner!” Yosuke said as he ran over.

Yosuke skidded to a halt at the cage and walked around it to see if he could find an opening. There was a door to the cage and it had a thick padlock and a bit of chain on it.

“If only I had some tools I could cut the chain or try to pick the lock,” Yosuke said as he yanked on the lock. “I can’t force it open it seems.”

“Perhaps there’s a key somewhere?”

“I’ll go look for it. You’ll be free in no time, Partner.”

Yu nodded and gave Yosuke a thumbs up. As soon as he did a piece of paper fell inside the cage and Yu picked it up. Yosuke heard the fluttering of paper and stood by the cage.

“It’s another scroll,” Yu said as he opened it up.

“Figures this place is another one of those challenges,” Yosuke said, annoyed at the thought. “Let me guess, I have to get you out?”

_“In a pretty place_  
One is free and the other  
has to face some snakes” 

Yu’s eyes widened as he read the haiku on the scroll over and over again to himself. Yosuke stood there impatiently, waiting for Yu to tell him what the paper says. Yu looked up at his Partner and whispered the haiku. Yosuke couldn’t really hear him though.

“Why are you whispering?” Yosuke asked. Then he thought about it and realized that it might have something to do with the challenge. So he followed suit and started to whisper too. “What does the scroll say?”

“You’re going to freak out if I say it…”

“What? Just say it. I need to know what I’m going to be facing if I don’t have your help to do it.”

“Snakes…” Yu quietly mumbled.

“Sorry, can you speak up a little bit? It’s hard to tell what you’re saying when you’re whispering that softly.”

“You’ll be facing snakes…” Yu repeated.

“S-snakes?!” Yosuke asked, not even whispering anymore. “Give me that scroll!”

Yosuke reached through the bars of the cage and snatched the scroll from Yu’s hands. Yosuke’s eyes skimmed over the haiku and the color drained from his face.

“Now I really wish this was a whisper only challenge,” Yosuke mumbled.

“The Being must know your fears…”

“I mean he did hypnotize me. I’m not surprised if he did some digging into my memories. Dammit that’s an invasion of privacy. I think I’m going to be sick,” Yosuke said as he handed the scroll back. “Why does it have to be snakes?”

“You can do this.”

Yosuke shook his head and clung to the cage with a nervous smile.

“Hey, let’s switch places.”

“Yosuke, we can’t…”

Yu sighed and looked past Yosuke. A few feet ahead of them was a small six foot by six foot pit full of snakes. In the center of the pit there was a key on a string. A gust of wind blew, causing the string to snap, and the key fell into the pit. Yu’s eyes widened and Yosuke noticed, causing him to look at what his Partner was seeing. This immediately sent Yosuke into a panic attack.

“No! I refuse!” Yosuke exclaimed as he squeezed his eyes shut.

“From what I can see the snakes are harmless. I remember reading a book on them,” Yu said to try and calm his Partner down.

“Nuh-uh! I won’t do it! You can’t make me!”

“Actually I can…” Yu said averting his eyes.

“Y-you know what I mean! Don’t you dare do it! Please don’t make me!” Yosuke begged as he dreaded the worst. “Curse this involuntary hypnosis thing! I’d rather not know what I’m doing!”

“Hey, if you talk like that it is as if you’ve given into that Being’s power. I’m sure they’d be happy to hypnotize you again and make you smile like a madman.”

“Y-you’re right but…”

“I’m sorry, Partner,” Yu muttered to himself before looking at Yosuke. “There’s a key in there right in the center, I saw it fall in. You don’t have to walk through snakes.”

“Don’t say what I think you’re about to say!” Yosuke said as he started whistling in hopes he wouldn’t hear Yu’s voice.

“Just get the key, Yosuke!”

Yosuke instantly stopped whistling as fear set in. He felt himself moving forward towards the pit. He tried to resist the urge to move but his body wouldn’t let him.

“You had to go say it! I swear if I get poisoned, I’ll be angry with you for the rest of my life!”

Yu was afraid as well for his Partner’s safety. He never wanted to put him through this. It hurt him that he had to see his beloved go through a massive panic attack. 

Yosuke felt tears at the corner of his eyes as he got closer to the pit. He struggled with all his might but it was no use. His body moved against his pleas. Soon he was on his stomach and his hand hovered over the snakes.

“No, please! I don’t want to do this! Yu, make me stop! I’m begging you! I’m scared!”

Yu almost ordered Yosuke to stop but didn’t. They wouldn’t be able to move on unless Yosuke did this.

“Yosuke, it will be over soon! I believe in you!”

“Easy for you to say when you’re not the one doing this!”

The tears started to fall as soon as Yosuke’s hand brushed against one of the snakes. Yosuke started to hyperventilate and scream. He couldn’t form proper sentences at this point. His hand was deep into the snakes and blindly feeling around for the key. The snakes hissed and slithered around, brushing up against Yosuke’s hand and forearm, but that was all they did.

All Yosuke could think about was having to go further and further into the pit where he knew he would have died from sheer shock. As soon as his hand found the key he grabbed it and started to pull his hand up. He regained control of his actions at that moment and he wasted no more time near that pit. Clutching the key, he sprinted back over to Yu and collapsed near the cage.

“You did it, Partner!” Yu said hoping some encouragement would help.

Yosuke heard him but was busy sniffling and sobbing with his head down that he couldn’t chime in. Yu squatted down and patted Yosuke on the head while reaching for the key with his free hand. Yosuke tightened his grip on the key reflexively as soon as Yu tried to grab it.

“May I have the key? I need to get out of here so I can help you,” Yu said, being careful to not use any command words.

Yosuke nodded as he sucked up some snot that was dripping out of his nose. He relinquished the key and Yu held it in his hand. The key itself had snake motifs. Yu stood up, reached his arms through the bars, and stuck the key into the padlock. He fiddled with the lock for a moment and soon it opened and fell with the bit of chain. Yu pocketed the key as he opened the door to the cage. He walked out and quietly sat down beside his Partner.

“I’m here, Yosuke. I’m sorry I put you through all that…”

Yosuke whimpered and leaned into Yu who wrapped his arms around him in a comforting embrace. Yosuke clung onto Yu and cried into his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my longest chapters yet. I have more challenges ahead so the chapter had to be split. Will they make it through or will the break down? Stay tuned~


	9. The Challenge Gauntlet Inside A Dream Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The challenges continue inside a large house. Will their teamwork help get them through this? Or will they reach their limits?

Several minutes passed as Yosuke bawled his eyes out while in Yu’s arms. Yu held his Partner tight while whispering comforting words to him. Yosuke eventually calmed down and was able to speak up.

“Th-that was scary…” Yosuke whined.

“I know that was terrifying for you. I’m sorry that I put you through that...” Yu apologized.

“Please don’t do that to me again.”

“I won’t. Hey, we should get away from here since we completed this challenge.”

Yosuke nodded while they stood up. He wanted to get far away from the snake pit as soon as possible. He clung onto Yu’s shoulder as they walked by the pit and towards a tall wooden fence with a gate. It was impossible to see what was on the other side.

“Are you ready to continue?” Yu asked.

Yosuke replied with a nod as he started to regain his strength to go on. He put his hands on the fence gate while Yu did the same. They pushed it open together. On the other side of the gate there was a large mansion surrounded by more tall fencing. It was difficult to tell how many floors there was to the place.

“I hope this is the last challenge…” Yosuke grumbled.

Before he could say anything else, there was a ringing in Yosuke’s ears. He gasped and collapsed to his knees while instinctively reaching up to his headphones. Yu knelt down and supported him the best he could.

“G-get out of my head!” Yosuke demanded as he felt the Being’s presence probing his mind.

“No need to be rude,” the Being retorted. “I’m just here to congratulate you for making it this far.”

“I don’t need your praise!”

“Suit yourself.”  
“Is this the last challenge?” Yu asked despite not being able to hear the conversation the Being was having with Yosuke.

“Tell your Partner that this is the final challenge,” the Being said, rather irritated.

Yosuke felt his lips move on their own, speaking in an annoyed tone. Once he repeated what the Being ordered him to say, Yosuke regained control of his body again. He sighed in relief as he didn’t sense the Being’s presence anymore.

Yu helped Yosuke back on his feet before looking up at the mansion. Both of them steeled themselves for what was to come. They walked forward and the front door opened for them with a creak.

“We should get this over with,” Yosuke said with a sigh.

“We make it through here and we get to see whomever is behind all this,” Yu remarked.

“Let’s go, Partner!”

Yu nodded with a small smile and Yosuke smiled back. They ran up to the open door and entered the mansion. Their smiles were short lived as the doors slammed shut behind them. Yosuke quickly turned around and tried to open the door back up but it was no use.

“Of course we get locked inside,” Yosuke said angrily as he gave up on the door.

“There’s no use for us to go back the way we came,” Yu said. “We have to keep going forward.”

“You’re right, Partner. I guess we should look for another scroll.”

They walked close by each other as they searched the floor they were on. Last thing either of them wanted was to get separated. The room they were in was a foyer that split off into three directions. The left side had what looked like a large window. From where they were standing it was hard to tell what was through the window. To the right there was a single closed door. In front of them was a set of spiraling stairs leading to the next floor. The stairway was blocked off by iron bars. There was a padlock as well.

“I have a feeling that there's more than one challenge here,” Yosuke said.

“I have the same feeling,” Yu agreed as he saw something flutter near the iron bars. “Hey, it’s the scroll. What do we have to do?”

Yu picked up the scroll and read it out loud.

_“Welcome to the house  
Can you find your way outside  
Or will you be stuck”_

“This scroll doesn’t help at all…” Yosuke said as he rolled his eyes.

“Oh wait, there’s more on the back,” Yu said after he flipped the scroll around.

_“Push and pull some stone  
Make a stairway to the top  
Find your next clue there”_

“That sounds easy enough,” Yu said as he rolled up the scroll.

“Depends on how big or small these stones are,” Yosuke said.

Suddenly the single closed door to the right creaked open, startling Yu and Yosuke. They looked over and then back at each other.

“I wonder if there are ghosts here,” Yu pondered.

“Please don’t say things like that while we are trapped here…” Yosuke whined. “Let’s just go see if these stones are in that room.”

Yu nodded and the two proceeded to walk over. Yosuke walked in first while Yu leaned against the door to keep it propped open. His efforts were short lived as the door swung closed with a force that pushed Yu forward. Yu stumbled and crashed into Yosuke’s back, causing them to both fall to the ground.

“H-hey! What was that for?!” Yosuke exclaimed.

“I didn’t mean to! The door pushed me!” Yu retorted.

“Of course the door pushed you. Can you get off now?”

“Oh, sorry,” Yu apologized as he rolled off Yosuke.

Yosuke sighed as sat up. In front of him was a stone cube. He nudged it with his foot and the block slid forward effortlessly. The block stopped after it hit something. Yosuke stood up, looking at the block with awe. He then looked at his Partner.

“Did you see that?” Yosuke asked.

“The block somehow moved,” Yu replied. “The scroll mentioned moving stones.”

“So the stones are blocks. It’s kind of like those puzzle adventure games.”

“Isn’t it easy to mess up the way you push the blocks or stones?”

“If we do mess up then we would have no way to reset by leaving the room,” Yosuke said as he tried to open the door. “It’s locked.”

Despite their predicament the two shared a laugh as they thought about various puzzle game mechanics. They then refocused their energy towards the task at hand.

“We have to make stairs according to the scroll,” Yu said.

“So we push these blocks and climb up on them?” Yosuke asked.

“It is worth a shot.”

Yosuke carefully walked over to the block he had moved earlier. He thought the ground was going to be slippery since the block moved with a tiny nudge. But he walked over just fine. He noticed the block had hit another. The blocks were up to Yosuke’s waist.

“Stairs, hmm…” Yosuke thought out loud.

He tried to pick up the block but it was too heavy. Yu walked over and tried to help. With their efforts combined, they still were not able to lift it. They took a moment to stretch and shake off the pain before looking at the blocks closer.

“How are we going to make stairs with these if they are too heavy?” Yosuke asked.  
Yu pondered that for a moment and then got an idea. He climbed up on the block and stood there. Above him was another ledge that was too tall for him to reach. Yosuke climbed up after him. He tried to jump a couple times to reach the ledge but it was no use. Yu tried as well with the same result.

“Is there another block?” Yosuke asked as he looked around.

“I see one above us to the right but we can’t reach it,” Yu pointed.

“Oh, I see a block over to the left of us!”

Yosuke walked over and tapped the block. It moved further to the left and hit a wall. He panicked, thinking he messed up, and ran over to the block. He tugged on the block and walked backwards. To his delight the block moved with him. He pulled the block until it was lined up with the previously moved blocks.

“We can reach the ledge now,” Yu said as he climbed up. He reached down and helped Yosuke as well.

“Good thing we saw the other block from down there,” Yosuke said as he walked over to it.

Like the previous block he moved it in place. They climbed up and continued the pattern. There were times where Yu would be the one moving the blocks as Yosuke needed a break.They continued until they couldn’t anymore.

“We’re really high up again,” Yosuke remarked as he pulled himself onto the ledge.

“At least this is easier than the cliffs,” Yu added as he looked at their current surroundings.

From what he could see they couldn’t go any further as they were surrounded on three sides by wooden walls. They were several feet above the floor. Below was the stairway they made together.

Yosuke leaned against a plank of wood on the wall and let out a sigh. Suddenly he felt himself get flipped backwards as the panel moved under his weight. Yu gasped as he saw his Partner disappear before his eyes. Yu pushed on the panel, making sure he did it from the side so it didn’t hit him. The panel spun around for a moment then stopped.  
“Yosuke, are you alright?” Yu called out.

“O-ow, I think I landed on my wallet…” Yosuke whined as he stood up, rubbing his sore body.

“Do you see anything?”

“There’s a light in here. The room is small but I can stand up.”

Suddenly there was a ringing in Yosuke’s ears and he collapsed. He clutched his head as the Being spoke to him.

“You are much closer now but still so far. This room has an optional puzzle for you to solve. But since it is only optional I’m going to have you leave,” the Being said.

“I told you to get out of my head!” Yosuke exclaimed. “If this puzzle is optional then it wouldn’t hurt to solve it!”

“Walk out of this room by going back the way you came,” the Being ordered.

Yosuke tried to fight it but his legs moved on their own. Yu stood there worried after hearing his Partner’s outbursts. He realized what had happened. He was about to go through the wooden panel but he stopped when it started to flip. Yosuke tumbled forward and Yu quickly moved, catching Yosuke in his arms before he could hit the ground.

Yosuke felt his body go limp as the Being left his head. Yu held his Partner to comfort him. Yosuke’s angry expression soon turned into a sad one.

“Dammit, they kicked me out before I could do anything…” Yosuke muttered.

“I wonder why the Being doesn’t want us to solve it…”

“They must be hiding something.”

Yosuke pulled himself away from Yu and walked over to the panel. He kicked at it in frustration but it didn’t budge. With another angry huff he walked back over to his Partner.

“This whole challenge was for nothing? Then why was there a scroll for it? It said our next clue was there.” Yosuke asked.

“It can’t be for nothing,” Yu replied. “We’ll figure it out.”

“We better, I don’t know how much more I can take…”

Yu nodded towards the stone steps they made and Yosuke nodded in response. They both quietly walked back down to where they first started pushing the blocks. When they got to the main floor they looked back up at the stairway before going to the door to the room. Yu turned the handle and the door opened up. They walked into the foyer to decide their next move.

“We can’t leave the house,” Yosuke said. “We can’t go up the stairs behind the bars either.”

“There is that room with the glass,” Yu said as he pointed to the left.

“Looks like that’s our only option. Alright, Partner, let’s do this.”

“Right, we can’t give up.”

With their firm resolve to continue, they made their way towards the left side of the house. They stopped as soon as they saw the glass as they didn’t want to know what was inside just yet.

“So who’s looking first?” Yosuke asked.

“Maybe you should,” Yu replied.

“What? Why me?”

“I don’t know…”

“Are you messing with me? Geeze, let’s play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Best two out of three, loser has to go check it out.”

“Fine by me.”

Both of them faced each other and held out their hands. They went through the motions, loudly shouting the whole time. By the end of the matches Yosuke had lost. He grumbled and stuffed his hands in his pockets before walking towards the glass. Yu internally sighed in relief.

Yosuke’s anger subsided when he looked through the large window. His eyes widened when he saw four large snakes. His face went pale and he dropped to his knees. Yosuke was forcing back his tears as he remembered that he had to deal with the previous snake challenge. 

Yu, after seeing Yosuke sitting on the floor, sprinted over and sat down beside him. 

“Yosuke, what did you see?” Yu softly asked as he brushed away a couple of Yosuke’s tears with his thumb.

“S-snakes. More snakes…” Yosuke stuttered as he shakily pointed to the glass that held the snakes in.

“What? Not again…”

Yu stood up and looked into the room. The snakes were large and they had numbers on them written with some kind of chalk. Yu couldn't read the numbers very well at a distance. He then noticed a door to the side that led into the snake room. Yu looked at the snakes again. He gasped as he recognized the snake breeds he had read about once.

“Those snakes in there are poisonous…” Yu gulped as he sat back down beside Yosuke.

“D-did you say poisonous?!” Yosuke exclaimed angrily.

"I knew some of these challenges were dangerous but not this life threatening."

"I-I can't handle more snakes…"

"I won't put you through that again. That's why I'm walking in there by myself."

"No way! I won't let you!" 

Yosuke gripped onto his Partner tightly. Yu tried to pull away but Yosuke shook his head and refused to loosen his grip. Yu sighed and wrapped his arms around Yosuke for a moment. He knew his next action was going to hurt his Partner. Yu felt it was necessary.

"Yosuke, let go of me," Yu said firmly.

Yosuke gasped and tried to fight it but it was no use. His arms moved on their own and he let his Partner go. Yosuke whined as he tried to regain control of his movement. By the time he did, Yu was standing a few feet away.

"Yu, don't!" Yosuke cried out as he started to stand.

"Stay there for a moment. I can do this."

"I don't want to stay!"

It was too late. The command combined with involuntary hypnosis made Yosuke's body feel heavy. He couldn't move from his spot on the floor. Tears pooled at the corners of his eyes as he watched his Partner open the door to the snake room and walk in.

“Don’t go in there!” Yosuke begged. “Dammit, why do I have to listen to everything and you don’t do the same?!”

Yu’s breathing became heavier as he did his best to ignore his Partner’s pleas. The sight of the deadly snakes didn’t help either. If these were the non threatening ones from the pit then Yu wouldn’t have this much trouble.

He remembered there were numbers on the snakes. He got close to one, but not too close. He saw the number ‘3’ on it and then backed away. Yu then walked over to another snake. The number ‘1’ was scrawled on it. He turned around and saw that another snake, a rather big one at that, had the number ‘5’ on it. 

While Yu was looking at the snakes, Yosuke sat there pouting. He started feeling lighter again and he managed to stand up.

“That’s right, Yu only told me to stay for a moment,” Yosuke said. “So it wore off after that moment passed.”

Yosuke sprinted towards the window and looked in. He was about to yell but he saw that Yu was examining a snake and decided against accidentally startling his Partner.

Yu saw the number ‘4’ on the last snake. He wondered why some numbers were skipped. He made a mental note and turned on his heels before stepping towards the door. Little did he know that step was a costly one. The same snake he was just looking at had moved in front of his feet. Yu stepped down on the snake and it quickly reacted by biting Yu’s ankle. The fangs went straight through the fabric of Yu’s pants and dug into his flesh. Yu winced and gasped in pain and reached down to dislodge the snake from his ankle.

Yosuke saw all this happening and tears fell rapidly from his eyes. Now that he could move he didn’t waste any more time.

“Yu! I’m coming to save you!”

He desperately tried to open the door but it was locked from the inside. He then banged on the glass furiously with his hands and his feet. Soon he was throwing his whole body at the glass, banging into it with his shoulder.

Yu removed the snake’s fangs from his ankle, tossed the snake aside, and started to limp towards the door. He was sweating, face pale, and his mouth felt dry. His expression was pained as he gripped onto the doorknob. Unfortunately the knob came off in his hands.

Yosuke screamed as he kept trying to break through the glass. There were small cracks forming as he kept at it. Yosuke moved further back and ran at the glass full speed. He managed to shatter the glass with this last move. Ignoring the pain from the tiny glass shards and cuts, Yosuke grabbed onto his Partner.

“Yu! I’m here! Let’s get you out of here now!” Yosuke said as he supported his Partner. “Here lean on me and get off your injured foot. One step at a time, Partner.”

They slowly shuffled their way through the glass fragments and managed to climb out of the hole in the window. Yosuke helped his Partner to the floor and sat down by him.

“Partner, I’m going to look at your ankle,” Yosuke said as he reached for Yu’s injury.

“S-stop! Don’t look…”

Yosuke felt his hand stop instantly and he glared at Yu with angry tears. Yosuke wiggled his fingers, trying to reach for the tattered hem of Yu’s pants, but it was no use.

“I have to see! You don’t look too good, Partner! Please, let me do this. I need to see how bad your ankle is because you were with poisonous snakes!”

Yu wished he could handle this on his own but he felt weak at the moment. He knew Yosuke was right. Yu eventually gave in as Yosuke continued to glare at him.

“Alright, I free you from my last commands,” Yu said, his voice still pained.

Yosuke’s arm had started to go numb from holding it out for a while. When the commands were released, Yosuke fell to his side, facing Yu’s ankle. He tugged the fabric upward and saw a nasty looking bruise. There were two marks from the snake’s fangs.

“I don’t have anything on me for this! Now that I think about it we’re both here empty handed with just our summer clothes…” Yosuke said as he patted himself down but found nothing.

“I-I don’t have anything either…” Yu weakly said.

“Hey, conserve your energy! I’ll think of something!”

Yosuke was about to but his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar feeling. He gasped and gripped his head, glaring as he really wasn’t in the mood right now.

“How many times do I have to tell you to get out of my head?!”

“It is a nice place to be, especially when you have things going on in it,” the Being retorted.

“I always have things going on in my mind. Right now I don’t have time to argue with you about them!”

“It’s true, you have very little time. The poison is going through your Partner’s bloodstream as we speak.”

“How do I get rid of it?”

“I’ll make this part of your next challenge. If you figure it out then you will be able to skip the rest of the challenges and face me.”

“I don’t have time for this!”

“If you can’t find the time to do this then your Partner will be dead. In fact he’s almost near death.”

“No! No! This can’t be happening!”

“I know a way you can save your Partner. But you might not have time to go all the way back there.”

“All the way back? Are you talking about the room you forced me out of?”

“Yes that is the one. I made you leave because I didn’t think you and your friend were careless around poisonous snakes.”

“So there’s something in that room that could help with this challenge!”

“Of course there is. Now you have to do something about the poison now and then go back to that room.”

“What do I do though? I can’t think of anything!”

“Let me do the thinking for you.”

“I can’t trust everything you say…”

“You might not trust me but I can force you to.”

“No! I want to have free will!”

“Your free will is costing your friend’s life!”

“I’m not listening to you! Go away!”

“To prolong your friend’s life you must suck the poison out.”

“You mean with my mouth?! Wouldn’t that poison me too?!”

“Do you want your friend to die while you go back to the hidden room?”

“N-no! Of course not!”

“I will leave you for now. Let’s see if you have free will or not to save your friend by sacrificing yourself a bit.”

The Being left and Yosuke banged his fists on the floor angrily. He looked at Yu’s ankle and thought about what the Being said. Yosuke sighed and brought his lips down onto Yu’s wound. He didn’t like this one bit but if it could help save his Partner’s life then he knew he had to. Yosuke started to suck up some of the venom. It burned his mouth and throat but Yosuke was desperate. He eventually stopped when the pain became too much. He collapsed and coughed for a bit before sitting back up. He looked over at Yu.

Yu’s eyes were closed, his face still pale. Yosuke moved over to check Yu’s pulse. It was faint but it was still there. Yosuke furiously wiped the tears from his own face and managed to pull himself to his feet. He coughed again before taking a step forward. He could still move and he was thankful for that. He knew that the poison in his own body would take over and he’d be on the ground just like Yu was.

“I’m going to find something to help you out of this, Partner,” Yosuke said. “Just wait for me, okay?”

Even though Yu was unconscious, Yosuke imagined Yu giving him a smile and a nod. Yosuke nodded back with a confident smile before running down the hall. He started believing that he could save his Partner’s life. He had to or they’d both die trying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took me a while to write but here it is. Please stay tuned for more angst and heart wrenching scenes. Soon I will ease the pain.


End file.
